Isack Hadjar has lost his victory in today’s Formula 2 sprint race after being blamed for causing the crash at the start of the race.
Roman Stanek therefore inherits the win, which is his first in the series.Hadjar was given a 10-second time penalty for triggering a collision which put Gabriel Bortoleto and Pepe Marti out of the race. The pair tangled as the cars pulled away from the grid at the start, both spinning into a barrier at the pit lane exit.
The three drivers started the race immediately behind pole-winner Stanek. Bortoleto made a slow getaway from second and was being passed by Red Bull juniors Hadjar and Marti when collision occured.
The stewards spoke to all three drivers and ruled Hadjar was to blame for the collision because he moved “significantly” to the right, towards his team mate Marti, leading him to make contact with Bortoleto.
“The driver of car 10 [Bortoleto] explained that both cars 20 [Hadjar] and 21 [Marti] had a better start than him and admitted seeing car 21 moving to the left to try to overtake him,” the stewards explained. “He also explained that he kept steering straight to leave enough room for car 21, when he suddenly felt a heavy hit on the left-hand side of his car.
“The driver of car 21 [Marti] explained that he had a good launch, saw a gap between cars 10 and 20 and started the overtaking manoeuvre between both cars. He also explained that his front axle was alongside car 10, when the gap disappeared and he felt a big hit.
“The driver of car 20 explained that he barely moved from the left-hand side of the track when he made contact with car 21. He also admitted not seeing his team mate alongside him.”
The stewards said footage of the crash showed Hadjar “moved significantly to the right to get a run on the car in front of him [Stanek] without realising that car 21 had a significant portion of his car alongside him. This move caused car 21 to move slightly to the right to take avoiding action.
“As a result, car 21 made contact with car 10. A second contact occurred between car 20 and 21. The stewards determined that car 20 was predominantly to blame for the collision.”
Hadjar’s time penalty drops him to sixth place in the classification. While Stanek claims the victory, Dennis Hauger moves up to second ahead of Kush Maini, Franco Colapino and Ritomo Miyata ahead of Hadjar.
Hadjar is the second driver to lose an F2 win this year due to a penalty. Richard Verschoor lost his sprint race win in Jeddah two weeks ago after his car failed a technical inspection.
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Formula 2
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- Hadjar is first Formula 2 driver to be penalised for causing a red flag in qualifying
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Retired (@jeff1s)
23rd March 2024, 7:47
Luckless run continues
Laz
23rd March 2024, 10:04
Is this really something to do with luck if he’s considered at fault for a crash?
Isn’t that just his own fault?
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
23rd March 2024, 10:12
This is like if Verstappen was penalised for Singapore 2017 had he managed to continue after turn 1.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
23rd March 2024, 10:16
I thought this was a straight racing incident which didn’t deserve a penalty. Hadjar’s been hard done by here.
Dex
23rd March 2024, 12:29
I tend to disagree. He didn’t even consider a possibility that someone might be on his right (which was more than likely to be the case). He decided to go for it no matter what, an all or nothing move, and we know the result. He should’ve checked his mirrors and, if that was not an option for some reason, he should’ve at least be less aggressive. It happens, it’s a risk many take, but in the end he did end the race for two other drivers. I don’t think it’s fair that he’s the one to make profits out of it.
kuvemar
23rd March 2024, 18:50
This is not a good comparison. More like if Vettel would’ve continued. And yes, he should’ve gotten a penalty.
Prajwal (@prajwal)
23rd March 2024, 10:38
That was a racing incident in my view. I’m surprised that Hadjar was handed a penalty.
oweng (@oweng)
23rd March 2024, 13:21
How deliberately driving into someone is only punishable by a 3 place grid drop and this racing incident warrants a time penalty costing multiple places I’ll never know.
When a car has a very slow start it is always likely to cause a bit of chaos as other cars won’t be in positions they normally are as they make bigger moves to avoid.
Stewarding at all events so far this weekend seems to have priorities all wrong. I’m struggling to understand the logic with so many decisions.
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
23rd March 2024, 19:48
This was clearly a racing incident. Everything was caused by Bortoleto’s poor start.