Haas' Romain Grosjean is now three-quarters of the way towards picking up a one-race suspension from Formula 1 in the wake of copping a penalty for ignoring blue flags in Singapore.
Grosjean was attempting to overhaul Williams rival Sergey Sirotkin while simultaneously being caught by race leader Lewis Hamilton.
Grosjean ignored blue flags as he battled – and passed – Sirotkin for position, while Hamilton was unable to get by, resulting in the Mercedes driver’s losing his gap over Max Verstappen.
Singapore Grand Prix: Race result | Drivers' standings | Constructors' standings
Hamilton ultimately kept Verstappen at bay and quickly re-established a buffer, aided in turn by the Red Bull driver being baulked by Grosjean through Turn 14.
Grosjean was handed a five-second time drop as well as two points on his license for the infraction.
That brings him to nine points, just three shy of hitting the 12-point mark that triggers an automatic one-event suspension.
No-one has reached 12 points, over the rolling 12-month timeframe, since the system was introduced.
Grosjean will not drop any of his points until the end of October, when it will be one year since he picked up a single penalty point at last season’s Mexican Grand Prix for abusing track limits.
It means that he must contest the next four Grands Prix – in Russia, Japan, the United States and Mexico – with nine points on his license.
He will shed two more points in mid-November, having copped those for colliding with Esteban Ocon on the opening lap of last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix
Grosjean was slapped with two points in Spain this year – for triggering the multi-car pile-up on the opening lap – and another two in France, when he again clashed with Ocon at the start.
“I think Romain just completely forgot the golden rule of blue flags and if you’re in a battle you’ve got to forget about your own battle and move over,” said Race Director Charlie Whiting.
“I’ve drilled that into them many many times and I think he completely forgot about it.
“He was so intent in his battle with Sirotkin… the light panels were flashing with his race number on them and Lewis was much much faster.
“It was probably one of the worst cases of ignoring blue flags I’ve seen for a long time.”
Grosjean is the only driver on the grid to have previously received a race ban in Formula 1, having been slapped with that sanction for his role in the start collision at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix.
