Imola post Qualifying penalties

Two drivers have been handed grid penalties following today’s Qualifying session at Imola.

First, Jake Hughes has been found guilty of impeding Carlin’s Logan Sargeant. The Briton from Van Amersfoort Racing reported that he had abandoned his lap and was preparing for another push lap whilst Sargeant started his with a 15 second gap to Hughes. At the exit of Turn 13, the gap between the two cars had been reduced to 1.5s. The American caught Hughes between Turns 14 and 15 and was impeded. The Stewards concluded that the Briton should have been aware of Sargeant approaching and could have moved out of the way. The impeding was therefore unnecessary. As a consequence, Hughes received a drop of 3 places for tomorrow’s F2 Sprint Race.

Moreover, Enzo Fittipaldi was also handed a drop of 3 places for tomorrow’s race after it was determined that he had impeded Hughes at Turns 10, 11 and 12. The Stewards concluded that the Brazilian was on an “out lap” when he was caught at Turn 9 by the VAR driver on a push lap. The Charouz racer decided to allow the Briton to pass at Turn 12 but could have allowed him to pass between Tun 10 and Turn 12, thus unnecessarily impeding Hughes.

The latter had classified P17 whilst Fittipaldi had set the 15th laptime of the session. They will start from 20th and 18th places respectively on tomorrow’s starting grid.