Monaco GP: Haas’ Oliver Bearman handed 10-place grid drop for red flag breach
MONACO — Haas driver Oliver Bearman faces a 10-place grid drop from wherever he qualifies for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix for a violation under red flags in Friday’s second practice session.
Bearman was summoned to see the stewards after overtaking the Williams of Carlos Sainz in second practice. A red flag had just been thrown, which means all drivers must slow and return to the pits.
Haas argued they had informed Bearman too late about the red flag.
The stewards accepted that was true, but added in their verdict: “However, it is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver which showed the red flag; and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place.”
Similarly, Aston Martin‘s Lance Stroll collected a one-place grid drop for Sunday’s race after stewards ruled the Canadian was to blame for the collision with Leclerc running into him at the hairpin in Friday’s first practice session.
During Bearman’s visit to the stewards the Briton said when he had seen the lights he felt slowing down abruptly would have posed a safety risk given the nature of the Monaco circuit.
The stewards said: “We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required.
The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown.
“This is particularly so in a track like Monaco. In the circumstances, there is no mitigating factor for the fact that he overtook a car.”
Bearman was handed the grid drop as a result and two penalty points on his licence.
It is Bearman’s second incident involving red flags in successive weekends.
During qualifying at Imola Bearman was controversially eliminated from Q1 when his lap was deleted after he crossed the line moments after a red flag had been thrown for Franco Colapinto’s crash.
Haas strongly disagreed with the FIA’s order of events in terms of the timing of the red flag and when it showed up on the circuit, but the penalty stood.
Haas is awaiting a full review of the Imola decision.
Source: espn.com