Giedo van der Garde has been handed a five-place grid position penalty for the British Grand Prix.
He received the penalty following his collision with Nico Hulkenberg which ended both of their races.
The stewards ruled Van der Garde had been too slow to respond to blue flags instructing him to let the Sauber past. Van der Garde was shown blue flags for a full lap and Hulkenberg had to use his DRS and KERS to get alongside the Caterham at the final corner.
The pair then collided, damaging Van der Garde’s front wing and Hulkenberg’s suspension. Both retired.
“It?s disappointing to finish a race like this,” said Hulkenberg. “Lapping can be troublesome, but these guys are racing too and have things happenings in the race, the same as us.”
“I lapped Giedo van der Garde and braked. At first I didn?t feel anything until I came out of the corner and realised the car wasn?t going straight, so we decided to stop.”
It is the second penalty Van der Garde received for his driving in the race. He served a ten-second stop-go penalty following a collision with Mark Webber which broke the Red Bull’s front wing. Van der Garde apologised to Webber on Twitter afterwards.
Caterham were separately fined ??2,000 (??1,700) after a team member crossed the pit lane during the race while Daniel Ricciardo was entering the pits. “Although the arriving car was not impeded there was the potential for the team member to be injured,” ruled the stewards.
2013 Canadian Grand Prix
Image ?? Caterham/LAT
George (@george)
9th June 2013, 23:18
It must be pretty difficult for them to judge when to cross in the pitlane considering the entry is so short.
clappy (@danielc)
9th June 2013, 23:20
Fair enough, come on Geido I had wrote you off and then in Monaco you was great imo, start showing some consistency.
If you want stay in F1 you need to keep close withPic, if you get beat convincingly it will be the end.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
9th June 2013, 23:23
Call me crazy but wasn’t Hulkenberg the one who slightly turned left into Van Der Garde’s wing?
Sure, VDG was being lapped at the time and he might have responded too slow to the blue flags, just as Sutil, but the crash per-se, as I remember it, was pretty much Hulk’s fault…
I’d very much love to see a replay of that / an onboard from VDG’s car.
Mark Hitchcock (@mark-hitchcock)
9th June 2013, 23:36
Doesnt really matter who’s fault the crash was, the penalty is deserved because VDG was ignoring blue flags AGAIN. Something he had already been penalised for in the race.
@HoHum (@hohum)
10th June 2013, 6:30
You can be sure that the stewards have seen it.
Richly deserved penalty, being a grumpy old man I get annoyed when drivers in front of me wander all over the road as though they have exclusive rights to use it, but they are not professionals involved in a race with blue flags being waved at them.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th June 2013, 7:40
Well, had it been an overtake, the stewards might have judged it a racing incident, or even Hulkenbergs fault. But given that VDG was shown blue flags for a full LAP before Hulk managed to pass him using both DRS and KERS, its very clear that VDG was not in any way heeding those flags and deserved a penalty @tony031r!
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
10th June 2013, 9:05
@mark-hitchcock @hohum @bascb
My problem is with the way the FIA are justifying these penalties again. Van Der Garde deserved the penalty but for ignoring multiple blue flags…again. Not for the actual contact with Nico. Not for ignoring blue flags AND the actual contact with Nico. The contact has nothing to do with it, actually. Even though Van Der Garde put himself in a delicate position, the crash per-se was simply not his fault. He got turned into by Nico…
If you hold someone up for one lap, then when he passes he turns into you for whatever reason, you don’t get penalized for holding him up AND causing an incident…It’s absurd.
Yayra A (@xdugu19)
9th June 2013, 23:24
He might as well not take part in qualifying and save his tyres!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th June 2013, 0:03
@xdugu19 It’s going to rain so that may be irrelevant, he can save money though. I think Hulk made a mistake nonetheless
I think he knows that he could had been more cautious, I think Hulk has tried hard to push his team forwards, sometimes though too hard, I commend him on the effort, he is a top driver.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th June 2013, 7:42
I guess by then he was frustrated and feared he VDG would try and fight him after being stuck for a complete lap @peartree. But its good that Hulk does not go on and complain about VDG because his move was far from nice and clean
Joe Papp (@joepa)
9th June 2013, 23:57
VDG just seems like a driver who doesn’t really “belong” at the top-level of motorsport in F1. But if you replaced him w/ someone else, would they go any faster really? They’d probably not impede as many other drivers, but that’s hardly much reason to boot him off the team. Hmm…
Breno (@austus)
10th June 2013, 1:09
Heiki Kovaleinein would be faster. One of the boys from RBR’s young driver test might be faster too.
Spawinte (@spawinte)
10th June 2013, 3:42
He was bouncing around the lower categories for yonks wasn’t he? I think I remember hearing his name when I was still in college.
Nick (@npf1)
10th June 2013, 1:04
Not a good showing for Giedo today. I want him to do well as a Dutchman, but as an F1 fan, I don’t think his career would survive another weekend like this.
Dane (@n0b0dy100)
10th June 2013, 1:44
Oh no, you mean he’s gonna have to start from 22nd instead of 21st?
TMF (@)
10th June 2013, 7:00
To be fair Hulk caused the crash – but blue flags should mean, get off the racing line and lift. There have been a few incidences in 2012 and 2013 where race results might have been influenced by them because they continued normal racing. And the stewards should do more to prevent this.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
10th June 2013, 7:13
Actually lapped cars hardly ever get off the racing line on a straight but just keep continue driving straight on. Makes sense, because you don’t want backmarkers swerving across on a straight.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th June 2013, 7:43
The guy having the blue’s waved for him for about a whole lap before that incident was VDG though @tmf42, he should have moved over earlier!
Hulks move was sloppy though, probably out of frustration.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
10th June 2013, 7:50
Why was van der Garde not punished for driving his heavily damaged car around the race track? One day someone will be seriously hurt because a driver tried to continue when they should have pulled over. We see this practice too often and it needs to be stopped immediately.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
10th June 2013, 8:25
Heavily damaged? He just had a broken wing. When it came loose and under his car, he pulled over.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
10th June 2013, 9:07
after driving a further 3 or 4 turns!
Master firelee (@master-firelee)
10th June 2013, 9:04
What a pointless penalty he’s likely to qualify last or near to it as it is…
Patrickl (@patrickl)
10th June 2013, 12:10
Typical pay driver. Never succeeded in GP2 despite his father-in-laws support and now he’s bungling in F1.
Bad commercial for Dutch drivers.