Photo: TCR Media

James Nash loses championship lead after Race 1 penalty

James Nash was imposed a 10-second time penalty after the stewards deemed the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver guilty of having hit Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay in the first race at Sochi, Russia. The decision means the Brit loses fourth and slips down to ninth, and also loses the championship lead.

B3 Racing’s Mat’o Homola also received a 5-seconds penalty for being in the incorrect position on the grid at the start. As a result the Slovakian loses ninth and only gets one point for tenth. This promotes Mulsanne Racing’s Petr Fulìn to eighth.

The new championship leader is Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini, three points ahead of Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola, with Nash now 10 points behind his team-mate.