Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto spun out in the final minutes of Free Practice 3 and broke the left front suspension, which brought proceedings to an early halt.
Moments later, Bearman approached the pit entry at high speed and lost control of his VF-25.
The 20-year-old nosed into the pit entry wall before returning back to the lane.
It’s the second red flag-related incident for Bearman, who was given two penalty points and received the same 10-place grid penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix.
On the streets of Monte Carlo, Bearman was sanctioned after passing under red flag conditions.
Bearman is at risk of a one-race ban with the limit at 12 penalty points for a 12-month period. He has eight to his name.
“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 87 (Oliver Bearman), the team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” the FIA stewards’ report read.
“The session was red flagged at 12.33:57. Car 87 had slowed down for the red flag and as he was approaching Turn 15 accelerated significantly to race pace and entered the pit entry road at 260kph. He lost control of the car in the pit entry road and crashed into the barriers.
“Art. 37.6 (a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations and Art. 2.5.4.1 (b) of Appendix H of the International Sporting Code require that when a red flag is shown ‘all cars must immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to the pit lane’.
“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.
“We accordingly penalised him per the penalty guidelines to a drop of 10 grid places with 4 penalty points.”
This year marks Bearman’s first start in the British Grand Prix.
Ollie Bearman clatters into the barriers on the pit entry 💥
Catch up with all the key action from FP3 ⤵️#F1 #BritishGP
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 5, 2025
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