Ollie Bearman handed severe penalty for British GP after crash in pit-lane | OneFootball

Ollie Bearman has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s British Grand Prix after crashing in red flag conditions in practice.

The 20-year-old, competing in his first F1 home race, lost control of his Haas car upon entering the pit-lane, in the final practice session on Saturday.

Bearman’s car, which was going at 161mph as he entered the pit-lane, spun into the wall, though he did manage to drive it back to his garage.

However, given the incident took place in red flag conditions where car control is paramount, the stewards have dished out a severe penalty for Bearman’s race on Sunday.

The Haas driver also received four penalty points, taking his total up to eight. Twelve in one year triggers a race ban.

The stewards said: “The International Sporting Code require that when a red flag is shown ‘all cars must immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to the pit lane.

“It is beyond doubt that the driver of Car 87 did not proceed slowly back to the pit lane when he accelerated to simulate entering into the pit entry road under race conditions. In fact, we looked at a previous in-lap under normal racing conditions and found that he was fastwr in this lap, under a red flag.

“To make matters worse, he lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers while at speed. The drive informed us that he misjduged the fact his brakes were not warm because the lap was done slowly, due to the red flag.

“While this may have been a factor contributing to the crash, we did not consider it to be a mitigating factor.

“We accordingly penalised him per the penalty guidelines to a drop of 10 grid places with 4 penalty points.”