Saturday’s Sprint Race through the demanding streets of Baku was a frenetic spectacle from start to finish. Amid the chaos, time penalties and deleted lap times plagued several drivers. While most incidents were either resolved during the race or resulted in no further action, some drivers were less fortunate. The true consequences, however, came after the checkered flag. Following the Sprint, a number of drivers received penalties, which they will have to serve in the post-race proceedings.
Van Hoepen hit with penalty after causing collision
Firstly, during the first lap of the race, Laurens van Hoepen found himself behind Arvid Lindblad and Ritomo Miyata, positioning himself on the inside line. Under braking, he locked up and collided with the rear of Miyata’s car. This contact sent Miyata into Lindblad, causing the latter to spin out at Turn 2. After hearing from all three drivers and their teams, the stewards made their decision. They deemed van Hoepen fully at fault for the incident and issued him a 10-second post-race time penalty. While this penalty didn’t significantly affect his race result, as he remained in P17 even after the time was added, van Hoepen was also handed 2 penalty points for causing the collision.
Maini’s time penalty converted to three-place grid drop for Sunday’s Feature Race
Kush Maini’s weekend took a further downturn after the Sprint Race, as the DAMS driver was handed a time penalty for hitting the back of Amaury Cordeel into Turn 2. On Lap 6, Maini misjudged his braking and collided with Cordeel’s car, causing damage that forced him to retire after returning to the pits. Upon reviewing the incident, the stewards concluded that Maini was at fault for the collision, as he failed to judge the braking zone correctly.
While incidents like this typically result in a 10-second penalty, the stewards took into account the low-speed nature of the impact and opted for a lesser penalty of 5 seconds. Since Maini retired from the race and was not classified, the stewards could not add the time penalty to his race result. Instead, they converted the penalty into a three-place grid drop for the Feature Race. Additionally, they handed Maini one penalty point for the incident.
Final Sprint Race Classification:
- Dino Beganovic
- Luke Browning
- Alexander Dunne
- Jak Crawford
- Leonardo Fornaroli
- Richard Verschoor
- Gabriele Minì
- Victor Martins
- Joshua Duerksen
- Arvid Lindblad
- Roman Staněk
- Ritomo Miyata
- John Bennett
- Cian Shields
- Sebastian Montoya
- Amaury Cordeel
- Laurens Van Hoepen
Not Classified: Martinius Stenshorne, Kush Maini, Pepe Martí, Rafael Villagómez, Oliver Goethe
