Following a chaotic first race of the weekend in Jeddah, three drivers have received penalties, including podium finisher Jake Hughes has been disqualified from the results, handing the third place to MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich.
The Van Amersfoort Racing driver will now wait for another opportunity to bring his and the team’s maiden podium due to a technical non-conformity that cost him championship points.
The plank located on the bottom of Hughes’ car was considered too thin with a maximum thickness of 3.6mm, which didn’t meet the required thickness of 5mm +/-1 mm.
At the same time, the Campos Racing driver, Ralph Boschung, had to drop back to 15th after receiving a 20 second time penalty for his action in placing his car in front of the starting grid even before the lights went out.
With the penalty applied to his final lap time, Boschung had to drop to 15th, promoting PREMA Racing’s Jehan Daruvala and Virtuosi’s Marino Sato to P7 and P8 in the final points available.
Despite almost having a good session as he made up the most places in the opening stages of the race, Doohan received a three-place grid drop after causing a collision with Logan Sargeant at the end of the safety car period, which resulted in the two drivers to have an early retirement.
From the collision, the Stewards determined that Doohan was the one to blame even though it seemed inevitable as there were no open gaps for the Australian to avoid Sargeant in his Carlin.
Doohan‘s starting position will remain the same as he was already disqualified from Qualifying for failing to supply the required 0.8 kg of fuel in parc ferme, he will start the Feature Race from the back of the grid.
*Image credits: Jake Hughes Racing/James Gasperotti
