Jack Doohan has collected the first penalty points of his Formula 1 career for a last-lap crash in today’s sprint race.
The Alpine driver lunged down the inside of Gabriel Bortoleto at turn 14 and made contact with the Sauber driver. The stewards ruled him wholly responsible for the incident.“I think he locked up and hit me,” said Bortoleto after the race. Doohan said he “went for a move, it didn’t exactly go to plan, I need to look into it and see what happened.”
The stewards spoke to both drivers before issuing the penalty. Doohan told them the Haas cars ahead when he tried to pass Doohan compromised his attempt to overtake. The stewards did not accept his explanation and held him responsible.
the corner and collided with Bortoleto,” they noted. “Doohan suggested that he was in control of the
overtake but the presence of the two Haas cars and the line they took compromised his overtake attempt.
“First, as the car attempting to overtake, the responsibility was on Doohan to ensure that it was done in a safe manner and in line with the regulations and the guidelines.
“Secondly, applying the Driving Standards Guidelines, Doohan did not have the right to the corner at the apex and should have backed off – here, because of the speed at which he approached the corner for the overtake and the resulting lockup and understeer, a collision was caused, for which Doohan was predominantly to blame. We therefore imposed the standard 10-second penalty with two penalty points.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
The stewards also explained why they chose not to penalise Doohan or Liam Lawson for a minor collision between the pair at the same corner earlier in the race.
“Car 30 [Lawson] overtook car seven [Doohan] at turn 14 and there was a minor collision at the exit.” they noted.
“We applied the Driving Standards Guidelines as a guide to determine who had the right to the corner. Applying those guidelines, it is clear that Lawson was well ahead of Doohan at the apex of the corner and was entitled to use the full track at the exit.
“Doohan should therefore have given Lawson sufficient room to overtake and his failure to do so resulted in a minor collision. As the resulting collision was minor, we took no further action.”
Penalty box
Doohan's penalty for colliding with Bortoleto was:
- No opinion (0%)
- Far too lenient (0%)
- Slightly too lenient (0%)
- Correct (81%)
- Slightly too harsh (19%)
- Far too harsh (0%)
Total Voters: 16
Loading ...Should either driver have been penalised for the Lawson-Doohan collision?
- No opinion (0%)
- Strong penalty for Doohan (0%)
- Moderate penalty for Doohan (8%)
- No penalty for either driver (54%)
- Moderate penalty for Lawson (38%)
- Strong penalty for Lawson (0%)
Total Voters: 13
Loading ...A RaceFans account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2025 Chinese Grand Prix
- Red Bull reassure Verstappen over ‘when we’ll have a winning car again’ in meeting
- Mercedes explain impact of Antonelli’s floor damage on his Chinese GP performance
- “I gave a lot of lap time away in that first stint”: Verstappen’s full Chinese GP radio
- Stats: Chinese Grand Prix saw most disqualifications in an F1 race for 21 years
- Even the best driver on the grid needs a team mate to push them – Norris
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd March 2025, 6:09
Out-qualifying Gasly doesn’t matter if he keeps on giving a reason for sacking in the races & sprints.
SteveP
22nd March 2025, 9:37
It’s his first points of the season, shame it’s the wrong column.
An Sionnach
22nd March 2025, 12:33
Doohan: just silly. Thought the Lawson move also wasn’t on, but, reading the explanation of the stewards, perhaps it’s fair enough. This goes back to the question about being ahead at the apex only because you carried too much speed into the corner. The apex may be too late to judge this. The driver ahead going into a corner used to be able to hold the racing line and close the door on those looking to dive down the inside. Unfortunately, it will always come down to a line where being on either side of it makes the move legal or not. Perhaps some sort of DRS-like line is needed at critical corners and that drivers will be notified of where they stand so they can back off? Sounds horribly technology-dependant, though.
Dusty
22nd March 2025, 12:48
Explanation about the incident with Lawson sounds a bit weird to me. I agree on not giving either driver a penalty, but:
There was plenty of space, Doohan complied with the rules in my view, and that should be the reason for no further investigation.
Lawson intentionally tried to compromise Doohan’s corner exit and prevent a comeback. That’s car racing, but not really what I expect from a Red Bull overtaking an Alpine.
S Arkazam
22nd March 2025, 12:49
I’d argue that the Doohan Bortoleto incident was a racing incident as well.
That Doohan locked up was only due to the two Haas cars taking that turn in a very weird way and blocking the road ahead. This required Doohan and Bortoleto to brake much more than normally required, and causing the lock up.