Mazepin given suspended grid penalty for “potentially dangerous” post-race incident

Formula 2

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Nikita Mazepin has been given a suspended five-place grid penalty for causing a “potentially dangerous” incident following today’s Formula 2 feature race.

The stewards ruled Mazepin drove too quickly in the parc ferme area after the race, striking the second place marker board. The board fell to the ground close to Yuki Tsunoda, who took victory from his rival after Mazepin was given a five-second time penalty for forcing Tsunoda off the track.

As Mazepin’s penalty is suspended it will not be applied unless he commits a further transgression.

Mazepin was also investigated over his departure from the pits following his mandatory stop during the race. The stewards noted he “allegedly drove a car in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person” by driving “close to Trident team personnel”. He was given a reprimand for the incident.

The MP drivers, who collided at Blanchimont during the race, were also penalised. Nobuharu Matsushita was held responsible for causing his race-ending collision with Felipe Drugovich, and given a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s sprint race.

Drugovich was disqualified from the race for a separate incident. He was found to have made his mandatory pit stop on the final lap, in violation of the rules. Both drivers will start tomorrow’s race from the last row of the grid.

Marcus Armstrong was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track at the final corner and gaining an advantage by overtaking Jack Aitken. Armstrong’s penalty drops him from 13th place to 15th, promoting Aitken and Marino Sato.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Mazepin given suspended grid penalty for “potentially dangerous” post-race incident”

  1. Jose Lopes da Silva
    30th August 2020, 0:43

    It’s the same guy who punched Callum Illot. Did not learn it. Hope he get’s banned, Ferruci-style, before his father buys Haas or some other F1 team.

  2. Stewards had a busy time it seems.

  3. Yes, he was likely very upset and became unprofessional. I expected some penalty points on his license or something like that, but it was very likely that he will get some penalty for defending so hard two times and being investigated about an unsafe release.

    I think Tsunoda was completely next to him or slightly ahead at his second overtaking attempt and the first one was not much worse too. At the second one Tsunoda was next to him so we cannot talk about closing the door, because Tsunoda was on the threshold, therefore he made him to drive off and he rode the kerb quite hard at both times. At touring cars something like that is in the game, but at open wheelers track safety should be respected a bit more. And Tsunoda made an effective enough overtaking attempt to be left space according to the rules, as he was more than half way alongside, and not divebombed, carried it out nicely.

    I think Mazepin was on a lower downforce setup because despite of his older tyres (as I remember), he often gained something like 0.1s on Tsunoda around Eau Rouge and Raidillon and Tsunoda managed to close the gap in the DRS zone. He had marginal speed advantage in the DRS zone at his 2 overtaking attempts and managed to drive alongside too both times. Shutting the door after a succesfully carried out overtaking or within the boundaries of the 1move rule while defending and driving someone off is different. It was hard defense but I would be surprised and unhappy if defense like that would be accepted by stewards multiple times in a row.

  4. Seems a lot of the drivers in f2 have anger issues. Let’s not forget Callum Illot calling everyone who overtook him a f&#) and his non-stop use of the f word at his competitors after the Barcelona feature race.

    1. Don’t forget Tictum

    2. Ticktum, Ferrucci and Mazepin quickly come to mind, but Ilott? Never knew he said that s&#t…

  5. We’ve seen significant anger and behavioral issues with many of the drivers in junior categories. Although the pressure to perform and showcase yourself is high, they need to understand that such issues can also put off some teams in the higher categories if you’ve a history of such behavior.

    Nikita Mazepin was already banned for punching Iilot during F3 days and his behavior yesterday in parc ferme was punishable.

    FIA needs to really be strict on junior drivers to ensure we see better behavior otherwise someday, it’ll not show Formula 1 in good light when the juniors graduate.

    Example of what we saw between Max and Esteban.

  6. This F2 field is the worst we have ever seen. By a mile…. Not only in talent, but also in attitude. If guys like Mazepin are able to compete for victory you know the championship is down to a questionable level. Not a single driver is F1 material at this moment.

  7. I guess that was the icing on the cake

  8. A lot of old maids on here. Young men showing aggression in sport! Whatever next . Go watch lawn bowls

    1. It is the lack of professionalism along with the aggression that makes this behavior problematic.

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