Romain Grosjean's hopes of pulling away from Sebastien Buemi in the Formula 3 Euroseries standings have taken a dramatic blow after he was given a one minute penalty that dropped him well out of the points.
It looked as though the Frenchman was heading into the second race at Barcelona with a comprehensive 12 point lead over Buemi after the Swiss driver spun off whilst under pressure from Grosjean, but stewards agreed that too many mechanics were working on his car on the grid.
He was therefore slapped with a one minute penalty that has plummeted him down the order to 16th, not only losing him the six points for third, but also putting him out of position for the second race. His championship lead is now also back down to six points.
ASM have appealed the decision, but for the moment it means Tom Dillmann moves up to third position, James Jakes to fourth, Franck Mailleux to fifth, Renager van der Zande to sixth, Edoardo Piscopo to seventh and finally Harald Schlegelmilch to eight, the Latvian therefore starting the race from pole position for the second race in a row.
