Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman has been restored to the front row for Sunday’s Formula 2 feature race at Imola after his best qualifying time was reinstated.
The Prema driver was one of several, including his team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who fell down the order after qualifying due to losing lap times for track limit infringements.McLaren junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto took pole position for the feature race, five hundredths of a second quicker than Bearman, with Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar in third ahead of Antonelli in fourth. However after the chequered flag fell several drivers had their best lap times struck out for exceeding track limits, including the two Prema drivers, Bearman and Antonelli, who fell to 16th and 18th, respectively.
However, almost two hours after the provisional classification was published, the stewards issued a final record of all 14 lap times deleted during the session. While Bearman and Antonelli both lost multiple laps deleted, neither of their quickest lap times were among those deleted.
The FIA then issued an amended provisional classification for qualifying confirming they had moved up the grid. As a result, Bearman regains his front row start for Sunday’s feature race, with Antonelli set to start behind his team mate and Hadjar in fourth.
Bearman therefore gains his best starting position of the season so far. Despite securing pole in qualifying in Jeddah, Bearman withdrew from the event before the sprint race in order to substitute for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jnr in the grand prix.
“I wasn’t looking forward to starting from the back rows for another weekend,” Bearman told media including RaceFans after qualifying. “Because so far in F2, I’ve only started at the back. So it was looking like a long weekend and I’m glad that the lap got reinstated.”
Enzo Fittipaldi will start Saturday’s sprint race from reverse-grid pole, with Williams junior driver Franco Colapinto alongside him on the front row.
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Formula 2
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- Marti wins sprint race as Bortoleto extends points lead ahead of finale
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Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
17th May 2024, 20:23
Well done. The stewards’ decisions have been deleted. Are they the same officious ones from Melbourne? Surely this circuit doesn’t need track limits.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
18th May 2024, 4:10
No the F1 stewards for this week are
Tim Mayer
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Matthew Shelley
Matteo Perini
The F2 “Flippers” are
Steve Pence
David Domingo
Valerio Brizzolari
Tristan
17th May 2024, 22:39
I think what’s worse is the FIA having no idea how they are penalising at this track until after they penalised.
Essentially figuring it out as they go along.
You can’t enforce a rule then go “oh but the 2 most hyped drivers got penalised, let’s just scrap it this time”
If there’s enough natural deterent to mean track limits aren’t enforced, this should be communicated clearly in advance so all drivers know and can take advantage.
P.S Bergman’s quote was “he wasn’t looking forward to”…
Tristan
17th May 2024, 22:40
Bearmans*
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
18th May 2024, 15:04
On one hand, it’s… let’s just say unfortunate… that penalties are getting rescinded just as they happen to have been given to the two most hyped drivers on the field (and probably not the best ones either, at least as things stands now).
On the other… track limits at Imola? Really?