Kush Maini inherits third place in the F2 Sprint; Winner gets a penalty

Melbourne, 23 March 2024: Indian racing star Kush Maini acquired a third place following a penalty to the ‘race winner’ and thus gained important points to move up to the third place in the F3 championship. The Bengaluru driver finished fourth in the race, but moved up after penalties were implemented. “Not the ideal way to get the podium, but we will take the extra point and the trophy,” said Kush Maini after the race.

Following the conclusion of the Formula 2 Sprint Race in Melbourne, multiple drivers have received post-race penalties.

Isack Hadjar has been handed a 10-second time penalty after the Campos Racing driver was found to have caused a collision with his teammate Josep María Martí and Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto at the start of the Race.

The Stewards spoke to all three drivers involved and examined video evidence before determining that the Frenchman moved significantly to the right to get a run on the car on Roman Stanek in front of him without realizing that Martí had a significant portion of his car alongside him.

This move caused Martí to move to the right to take avoiding action and as a result he made contact with Bortoleto leading to a second collision. The Stewards determined that Hadjar was predominantly to blame and handed him a 10-second time penalty.

This means that Hadjar loses his victory and drops down to sixth, promoting Trident’s Stanek to P1. MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger takes P2, and Invicta Racing driver Kush Maini moves up to third. The Indian driver also moves up to third in the Drivers’ Championship as a result, now on 33 points.

Moreover, Oliver Bearman has also been handed a 10-second time penalty for forcing PHM AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen off the track.

After the Stewards heard from both drivers and examined all available video evidence, it showed that Bearman was alongside Duerksen at the apex and exit of Turn 4 and. While the PREMA Racing driver raced in a controlled manner, he did not leave a fair and acceptable width for Duerksen at the exit of the corner.

This means Bearman drops from P8 to 15th in the classification, promoting ART Grand Prix driver Zak O’Sullivan up to eighth and giving him the final point in the Sprint Race.

Finally, Jak Crawford has been handed a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s Feature Race after the Stewards found that he did not have the correct number of tyres to comply with the Sporting Regulations in relation to the Feature Race.

The Stewards considered the matter extensively and having discussed the situation with a Technical Delegate, concluded that during Qualifying, Crawford rendered the left rear tyres of both “option” compound sets unusable for safety reasons.

It was determined that it was not for reasons of force majeure and therefore Car 7 cannot comply with the regulations as a result. He will drop five places in the Feature Race as this is when the tyre is required to be used.

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The FIA Formula 2 Feature Race from Melbourne is set to get underway at 11:35 local time around Albert Park. Dennis Hauger starts from pole position for MP Motorsport.