FIA confirms Oliver Bearman penalty after Carlos Sainz incident
Oliver Bearman (Haas VF-25) in action on Friday in Monaco
Haas driver Oliver Bearman has been hit with a 10-place grid penalty for a red flag breach during FP2 at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc topped the second free practice session in Monte Carlo on Friday with his fastest lap 0.038 seconds faster than the McLaren of world championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Oliver Bearman handed 10-place penalty for Monaco GP
The session was briefly interrupted following an incident involving Isack Hadjar, who suffered damage to his Racing Bulls car after tagging the inside barrier on entry to the Nouvelle chicane.
The red flag was thrown as the debris from Hadjar’s car was cleared up, with Bearman under investigation for ‘failing to comply with a red flag’ in a breach of Appendix H, Article 2.5.4.1 b) of the International Sporting Code.
The investigation related to an incident at the Rascasse corner, where Bearman overtook the slow-moving Williams of Carlos Sainz after the red flag had been deployed.
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F1 drivers are forbidden from overtaking other cars under red flag conditions, with a breach of the rules carrying the clear risk of a grid penalty.
The FIA has confirmed that Bearman will drop 10 places on the grid for Sunday’s race.
The stewards’ verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 87 (Oliver Bearman), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and incar video evidence and determined that Car 87 overtook Car 55 at Turn 17.
“Well prior to the overtake, the session had been red flagged. The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake happened.
“However, 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.
“The regulations require the drivers to ‘immediately’ reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b)).
“The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, ‘overtaking is forbidden’ and that drivers should ‘remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track…’.
“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.
“We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required.
“The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown.
“This is particularly so in a track like Monaco.
“In the circumstances, there is no mitigating factor for the fact that he overtook a car under red flag and we therefore imposed a penalty of a 10 grid place drop for the Race and 2 penalty points.”
The stewards have already been active on Friday in Monaco, with Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll given a one-place grid penalty after a collision with Leclerc in FP1.
Bearman was classified 15th in FP2 at the Monaco Grand Prix, equalling his result from the first practice session on Friday.
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Bearman sits 16th in the Drivers’ Championship, the lowest-classified driver to have scored points so far this season, entering the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
The British rookie has six points to his name in F1 2025 having followed up an eighth-place finish in China with two 10th places in Japan and Bahrain.
Bearman trails established Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon by eight points, with the former Alpine driver adding an eighth-place finish in Bahrain to his season-best result of fifth spot in China.
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