Ollie Bearman handed hefty grid penalty after unusual pit lane entry spin at F1 British GP
Ollie Bearman has been handed a severe penalty for his spin on the entry into the pit lane in final practice
Haas F1 driver Ollie Bearman has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix after spinning on his way into the pit lane in final practice at Silverstone.
Bearman locked his rear wheels on the entry to the pit lane in the final moments of FP3 after it was red-flagged following Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto's crash.
"My brakes are cold," Bearman reported over team radio after the incident.
Bearman was immediately noted for a red flag infringement.
The British driver was handed a 10-place grid penalty and four penalty points - a hefty penalty - for the incident.
The stewards deemed that Bearman had entered the pit entry road too quickly - at 260kph.
The stewards explained: "It is beyond doubt that the driver of Car 87 did not proceed slowly back to the pit lane when he accelerated to simulate entering into the pit entry road under race conditions. In fact, we looked at a previous in-lap under normal racing conditions and found that he was faster in this lap, under a red flag.
"To make matters worse, he lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers while at speed. The driver informed us that he misjudged the fact that his brakes were not warm because the lap was done slowly, due to the red flag. While this may have been a factor contributing to the crash, we did not consider it to be a mitigating factor."
Bearman is now four penalty points away from a possible one-race suspension.
Prior to his crash, Bearman had shown impressive speed in the Haas, setting the sixth-fastest time.
it will be the first time he will race in front of home crowd in F1.
Former Formula 2 teammate Kimi Antonelli will serve a three-place grid penalty after qualifying following his incident with Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix.
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