Mehdi Bennani given suspended penalty for D’Aste incident

Proteam’s Mehdi Bennani has been given a 10 place grid penalty, suspended for three races for the contact in race two which saw Stefano D’Aste spun around, which also caught out Aleksei Dudukalo and Pasquale Di Sabatino.

Bennani was running in ninth place behind D’Aste when the Moroccan made contact with the Italian, last time out a race winner in Austria, which saw the two BMW 320 TCs drop down the order.

“I got a very good start, I was eighth overall behind the Chevrolets (of Muller and Huff),” said D’Aste to TouringCarTimes. “Behind them I think I could do a good race after starting from 16th place, the car was very good, but Bennani didn’t brake and he crashed into the back of me, and the race was ended for me.”

“I couldn’t do anything, I returned to the pits to change the tyres, but I lost two laps. I tried to get some points in the independents’, but it didn’t work out.”

Bennani was investigated for two incidents after the races at Portmão; one for contact with Darryl O’Young in race one, but the stewards decided to take no further action. The 28-year-old Moroccan will however carry a ten place suspended penalty at Brazil, USA and Japan for the incident with D’Aste in race two.