Sargeant reprimanded, Williams fined over Doohan FP1 near-miss
F1 rookie Doohan was left shaken after he was forced to take evasive action to avoid a potentially-big collision with Sargeant at the final corner of the Yas Marina Circuit.
“Almost had the biggest accident of my life!” Doohan reported over team radio.
Sargeant was summoned to the stewards to explain the incident and was penalised for what they deemed as being “erratic driving” that “could easily have resulted in a collision”.
“The driver of Car 2 was preparing for a push lap and the radio communication from his engineer was almost entirely about preparation for that lap,” the stewards noted.
“The driver only received warning of the approach of Car 61, 1 second prior to its arrival. This could easily have resulted in a collision.
“In mitigation it was noted that 50% of the field were substitute drivers and hence there were many different run plans in operation, making it hard for teams to predict whether cars were going to be on push laps or otherwise.
“However, on a circuit where there are a number of places where it is not possible for the driver to have effective use of the mirrors to see approaching cars, it is essential that priority of radio communications be given to warning the driver, of other cars, rather than information for the preparation of a push lap. Accordingly a fine for the team is warranted.”
Meanwhile, Lance Stroll earned his Aston Martin team a €5,000 fine for driving unnecessarily slowly and impeding Frederik Vesti’s Mercedes.
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