Oliver Bearman has been hit with a grid penalty for failing to adhere to red flag regulations during Friday’s second Formula 1 practice session in Monaco.
The Haas driver overtook the Williams of Carlos Sainz at Turn 17 under red flag conditions, capturing the attention of the race stewards.
Therefore, the stewards decided to slap Bearman with a 10-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix.
A document from the FIA read: “Well prior to the overtake, the session had been red flagged. The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake happened.”
“However, it is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver which showed the red flag; and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place.
“The regulations require the drivers to ‘immediately’ reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b)).
“The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, ‘overtaking is forbidden’ and that drivers should ‘remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track…’.
“The driver claimed that he saw the red flags but decided not to slow down abruptly because he felt that slowing down abruptly would have been more dangerous and that what he did was a safer way of handling the situation.
“We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required.
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