Ocon loses win as multiple penalties rewrite GP2+GP3 results
The race stewards have been busy at Spa-Francorchamps with a host of incidents to review after Saturday's highly eventful GP2 and GP3 races.
In the GP2 feature race, a number of cars were found not to have respected the speed restrictions behind the safety car during the period following Dani?l de Jong's high-speed accident at Blanchimont.
Marlon St?ckinger (Status Grand Prix), Pierre Gasly (DAMS), Richie Stanaway (Status Grand Prix) and Sean Gelael (Carlin) were all handed ten second stop and go penalties, which because they were unable to serve during the race itself is commuted to a 30 second penalty added on to each of their final race times.
As a result, St?ckinger loses his first GP2 points position and drops out of the top ten. His place is taken instead by Trident's Gustav Malja making his GP2 d?but this weekend in place of the unwell Rene Binder.
Nick Yelloly (Hilmer Motorsport) also failed to slow down under the safety car, but he subsequently retired from the race and cannot serve a 30 second penalty so in his case he has been handed a ten place grid drop for Sunday's sprint race. Since Yelloly was due to line up in 22nd position and therefore cannot serve the full ten place penalty, it has been further commuted to a pit lane start.
Finally, Gasly has been further penalised for causing de Jong's crash in the first place after the stewards decided that the French driver moved too far over to the right of the track and failed to give de Jong sufficient room to manoeuvre despite de Jong already being alongside him. As a consequence, the DAMS driver was given another 10 second time penalty to be added to the his overall race time.
See updated GP2 feature race 1 results
In the GP3 race, race winner Esteban Ocon (ART) was deemed to have breached the virtual safety car speed limit at turns 15-16 before the green lights were shown for the penultimate restart, a breach of Article 41.2 of GPs's sporting regulations. Ocon was stripped of his race win and dropped to second place as a result, with Arden's Emil Bernstorff taking the race honours in his stead. Marvin Kirchh?fer (ART) remains in third.
Seb Morris (Status Grand Prix) has been issued with a five place grid penalty for causing a collision with Pal Varhaug (Jenzer Motorsport) at turn 5 on lap 9. As this penalty cannot be taken in full, Morris will have to start Sunday's race 2 from the pit lane instead.
Matheo Tuscher (Jenzer Motorsport) has also been served with a five place grid penalty for causing a collision with Sandy Stuvik at turn 13 on lap 12. Just as with Morris, Tuscher is also unable to serve the penalty in full and so will be joining the Briton in starting the race from pit lane.
Finally, Jimmy Eriksson's attempt to serve a drive-through penalty for jumping the original race start while the race was under virtual safety car conditions was deemed not to have been legal. The Koiranen GP driver has therefore had a twenty second time penalty added to his elapsed racing time which drops him out of fifth place and down to 13th.
As a result of Eriksson's penalty, championship leader Luca Ghiotto (Trident) is promoted to fifth and Alfonso Celis Jr. (ART) to sixth. Alex Palou (Campos Racing) is now shown in seventh place which means he will no longer take pole position for Sunday's race, which instead goes to Aleksander Bosak (Arden). The final points positions for Saturday's race are now taken by Ralph Boschung (Jenzer Motorsport) and Alex Fontana (Status Grand Prix).
