Penalty for overtaking under yellow, without actually overtaking
The marshalls at Thruxton this weekend made a big mess in the third race of the British Formula 3 series. Under waved yellow flags at the Club chicane the marshalls penalised Japanese driver Daisuke Nakajima for passing Jay Bridger. The problem was Daisuke Nakajima wasn’t passing Bridger at the time as he was already well clear of him on the road and had actually passed him at the start of the race. Apparantly the marshalls had mistaken Nakajima’s car for someone elses.
Nakajima received a drive-through penalty for the incident that never happened and his race for points was ruined. His team, Räikönnen Robertson Racing, questioned the penalty and Jay Bridger’s team Litespeed also confirmed that Nakajima was ahead of Bridger during the so called incident.
But the damage was already done. The race director had checked with the flag marshalls three times before deciding on the drive through penalty and there are no CCTV to look at.
There’s nothing to do about it…
I really think Sebastian Vettel is not ready to become a world champion just yet. If he was a bit more experienced and probably calmer on race days, he would have converted more pole positions to wins. Oh, well, may be next year!