Post Qualifying Penalties

David Beckmann, Christian Lundgaard, Keyvan Andres and Alessio Deledda have all received penalties following today’s FIA Formula 3 Qualifying session.

Firstly, ART Grand Prix duo Lundgaard and Beckmann have both been disqualified from today’s F3 qualifying result, with their lap times from the session cancelled. It was found that two team members who are not on the operational staff list were involved in actions impacting the mechanical and engineering operation of the cars. These two team members - who were identified as the drivers’ physios - were seen holding a blower which was directing air into the engine intake above the drivers’ head, therefore cooling the engine. ART Grand Prix’s Team Manager indicated that the drivers’ physios were not acting on behalf of the team.

Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that the actions of the drivers’ physios were a serious breach of the Operational Staff regulations which are designed to be a key cost limiting component for the Championship.

Both Lundgaard and Beckmann - who had qualified P5 and P9 respectively - have been given permission to start Race 1 from the back of the grid.

Moreover, it was found that Andres and Deledda failed to slow sufficiently under double waved yellow flags in sectors 5 and 6, during an incident at Turn 4, when marshals were recovering Robert Shwartzman’s beached PREMA Racing car.

As such, they received a drop of five grid places for Race 1 tomorrow, ahead of Lundgaard and Beckmann.