Motor racing-Bearman given 10-place Monaco grid penalty for red flag breach
FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy - May 15, 2025 Haas' Oliver Bearman ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix REUTERS/Jakub Porzycki/File Photo
MONACO (Reuters) -Haas Formula One rookie Oliver Bearman was handed a 10-place grid drop for ignoring red flags during Friday's Monaco Grand prix practice.
The Briton also collected two penalty points on his licence for the breach.
Stewards found that the 20-year-old overtook Williams' Carlos Sainz after the session was stopped and red flag warnings issued.
"It is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver which showed the red flag; and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place," they said.
"The driver claimed that he saw the red flags but decided not to slow down abruptly because he felt that slowing down abruptly would have been more dangerous and that what he did was a safer way of handling the situation."
The stewards disagreed with Bearman's stance and said drivers could not know, on a tight and narrrow track like Monaco, what might be ahead.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
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