Jack Doohan has been stripped of third place on the grid for Sunday’s Formula 2 Feature race for a technical infringement during qualifying.
A late effort saw him slot in behind Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor with Kiwi Marcus Armstrong filling out the second row.
However, post-qualifying scrutineering saw officials unable to extract the minimum 0.8kg of fuel required.
A report noted the alleged breach of Article 14.2 of the Formula 2 technical regulations and referred the matter to the stewards.
That resulted in the loss of all Doohan’s times from qualifying and will see him start both the Sprint and Feature races from the back of the grid.
“The Stewards acknowledge the Team Manager’s statement that this was an unusual session in terms of the number of red flags that were issued. On their part, the Team affirmed that they miscalculated the fuel load,” the Stewards’ report notes.
“Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards conclude that there is no intent of wrong-doing involved.
“However, there is no dispute that the Technical Regulations have been breached and the standard penalty for such a breach is, therefore, assessed.”
Doohan will join championship leader Theo Pourchaire at the rear of the field for both races, the Frenchman crashing in Friday’s practice session before suffering a fire in qualifying.
Benefitting from the ordeal is Calan Williams, the Aussie having qualified eighth on the grid.
That will now become seventh for Sunday’s feature race and sees him shuffle across the second row for Saturday’s sprint race to fourth from third.
The Formula 2 Sprint race gets underway at 15:30 local time, 23:30 AEDT.
Discussion about this post