Trident’s Roman Stan?k has been handed his first FIA Formula 2 victory after Isack Hadjar was given a 10-second time penalty after the race.
The Frenchman was slapped with the penalty for being considered ‘predominantly to blame’ by the FIA stewards for the collision at the start of Saturday’s Sprint Race that saw Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Campos driver Pepe Martí eliminated.
Bortoleto was slow away from his P2 grid spot, while the Red Bull Junior Team duo of Hadjar and Martí both got excellent starts.
Martí moved left to pass the Brazilian ahead of him as Hadjar moved right to attack pole-sitter Stan?k.
The pair made contact, sending Martí off course and into Bortoleto as the pair dramatically hit the wall on the exit of the pit lane.
The stewards spoke to all three drivers involved after the race and looked at video evidence, determining that Hadjar had caused the accident.
As a result of his penalty, Hadjar drops to sixth in the classification, with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger and India’s Kush Maini promoted to second and third positions respectively.
It means Hauger and Maini close the gap on F2 Championship leader Zane Maloney, who failed to score.
It’s Trident’s third win in Formula 2, adding to previous triumphs for Richard Vershcoor (2022) and Clément Novalak (2023).
Bearman and Crawford also penalised
The stewards were busy after the Sprint Race, handing penalties to PREMA’s Oliver Bearman and DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford.
Bearman had finished the race eighth, scoring his first point of the season in F2.
But the stewards have dished out a 10-second time penalty to the 18-year-old for forcing another driver off track.
The stewards found Bearman had failed to leave PHM AIX driver Joshua Dürksen ‘fair and acceptable’ racing room on the exit of Turn 4.
Again, the stewards spoke to both drivers and examined video evidence to come to their decision.
Bearman falls to 15th, losing the point he had earnt, promoting fellow Brit Zak O’Sullivan to P8.
American driver Jak Crawford has been given a five-place grid drop for Sunday’s Feature Race for not having the right number of tyres to satisfy the regulations during the Feature Race.
The stewards and FIA technical delegate concluded that the ‘option’ (supersoft) tyres available to the DAMS driver were unusable for safety reasons after Qualifying.
This followed the 18-year-old picking up a puncture and then damaging another set of tyres during a crash.
The Feature Race requires drivers to use both available compounds of Pirelli rubber but Crawford will be unable to comply with this rule.
Image: Red Bull
