Tom Coronel fined after losing a wheel in free practice

ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel was fined 1,000 EUR after causing Thursday’s second free practice session to be red flagged, after he continued around the track in his Chevrolet Cruze.

The Dutch driver lost a wheel at Turn 5 after the wheel nuts sheered on his car. Coronel attempted to return to the pit lane, crawling around the circuit and stopping at Turn 9.

Although he or the team wasn’t punished for the wheel coming loose, the stewards fined him for not stopping the car under Article 99 of the sporting regulations, which requires a driver experiencing mechanical difficulties to “leave the track or return to his pit as soon as it is safe to do so.”

“I thought I had a flat tyre,” said Coronel. “My team said ‘can you come back?’. I said I could but then the temperature was rising so I said I think I have a flat tyre. They said: ‘hey, you don’t have a flat tyre, you’re driving on your disc so park the car’. All the wheel nuts were broken.”