Breaking news

WTCR Suzuka

Tarquini, Bjork among drivers hit with Suzuka grid penalties

Three Hyundai WTCR drivers plus all three Munnich Motorsport Honda runners have received grid penalties for the opening Suzuka race after an incident in Friday's first qualifying.

Jack Cozens

Published: Oct 26, 2018, 11:59 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Gabriele Tarquini, BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR

All six drivers - YMRs Thed Bjork and BRC drivers Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini, plus Munnich Honda drivers Yann Ehrlacher, Esteban Guerrieri and Timo Scheider - were running in close company in the closing stages of qualifying.

Title contender Bjork was at the front of the train, which ran in formation until other cars caught the pack.

Stewards considered the matter after a report from the race director, and in their verdict said the group had been "driving unnecessarily slowly on the track" exiting the Turn 11 hairpin, reporting that the "slowest speed between T11 and T12 was 25-32km/h".

The stewards said this created "a potentially dangerous situation", and the drivers were deemed to have contravened article 2 e) of Appendix L, chapter five of the International Sporting Code.

This states: "It is not permitted to drive any car unnecessarily slowly,erratically or in a manner deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers at any time."

All six drivers will therefore drop three places on the grid.

In explaining the decision to award the penalties, a statement from the stewards said: "Each driver drove unnecessarily slowly which created a potential danger."

But the stewards deemed "no driver was considered any more or less to blame than the others", and therefore gave all six drivers three-place penalties for Saturday's opening race.

Guerrieri was the highest qualifier of the six, having been third-fastest in the first session, while Ehrlacher and Tarquini were originally due to start race one from fourth and fifth.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Infiniti Engineering Academy 2018 Mexico winner revealed

Next article F1 drivers want cameras and screens to replace mirrors

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

"Just undriveable" – Isack Hadjar looking for answers after "massive" struggles in Austin practice

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

20 min

"Just undriveable" – Isack Hadjar looking for answers after "massive" struggles in Austin practice

Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

49 min

Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”

The unexpected problem Honda encountered despite its second F1 power unit upgrade

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

The unexpected problem Honda encountered despite its second F1 power unit upgrade

MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts