Hyundai and Honda drivers punished for qualifying incident
The three Hondas of Münnich Motorsport and three of the Hyundais, the two BRC Racing Team Hyundais of Gabriele Tarquini and Norbert Michelisz, and the YMR car of Thed Björk, have all been given three-place grid penalties for Race 1 tomorrow after they caused a small “blockade” in qualifying.
Five minutes before the end of the session, Thed Björk backed off in order to not hand the two BRC Hyundais behind him a tow going onto the next lap, who in turn backed off as did the three Münnich Hondas behind.
It wasn’t until the Boutsen Ginion Hondas of Tiago Monteiro and Tom Coronel went past that the ranks broke, with Michelisz darting past Björk and starting his fast lap.
All six cars were found guilty of driving unnecessarily slowly, between 25-32km/h, and creating a “potentially dangerous situation.”
The stewards handed all six drivers a three-place grid penalty for Race 1, which has promoted YMR’s Yvan Muller to third, after he’d initially qualified in sixth position.
Münnich’s Timo Scheider already had a three-place grid drop as a result of a penalty hanging over from Wuhan, while Campos Racing’s John Filippi also has to serve a drop of 20 places, after receiving a ten-place penalty for crossing the pit lane exit line in qualifying, which as it was his third sporting offence, also earned him an additional ten-place drop, meaning the Corsican will start last.
