Under pressure F1 star picks up four penalty points during Chinese GP

Jack Doohan picked up four F1 penalty points for incidents during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.

It was another pointless weekend for Doohan as two incidents ruined his chances of finishing in the top 10 in Shanghai.

Doohan was handed a 10-second time penalty and two F1 penalty points for a last-lap collision with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto during the China sprint race.

He received the same punishment for a different incident in the grand prix.

This time, it was for forcing Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar off the track at the hairpin when he was trying to defend his position.

This means that Doohan has four penalty points in his name after just two rounds.

Any driver that accrues 12 penalty points must serve a one-race suspension.

Why was Jack Doohan penalised?

The first incident with Bortoleto saw Doohan lock-up and run into the side of the Brazilian.

The stewards noted: “DOO [Doohan] suggested that he was in control of the overtake but the presence of the two Haas cars and the line they took compromised his overtake attempt.

“First, as the car attempting to overtake, the responsibility was on DOO to ensure that it was done in a safe manner and inline with the regulations and the guidelines.

“Secondly, applying the Driving Standards Guidelines, DOO did not have the right to the corner at the apex and should have backed off – here, because of the speed at which he approached the corner for the overtake and the resulting lock-up and understeer, a collision was caused, for which DOO was predominantly to blame.”

For the incident with Hadjar, the stewards felt that Doohan had contravened the rules by forcing another driver off the track.

They said: “Car 7 (DOO) was overtaken by Car 6 (HAD) in the run-up to Turn 14, and in trying to take the position back on the inside, DOO lost control, locked up and forced HAD off the track.

“We accordingly imposed a 10-second time penalty with 2 penalty points, which is in keeping with the guidelines for forcing a driver off the track.”

Despite intense speculation about his F1 future following Alpine’s decision to sign

Franco Colapinto as their test and reserve driver, Doohan’s position doesn’t appear to be under immediate threat.