Oliver Bearman has lost his eighth place in the Sprint race of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix after being sanctioned by an insecure exit in front of Nico Hulkenberg, which has taken Yuki Tsunoda to the points zone.
During a series of tire changes in the second half of the sprint, when the track dried up enough for the slicks, Bearman, Haas pilot, he was seen leaving in front of Hulkenberg when the German pilot was going to make his own stop.
Bearman stayed in the outer “lane”, which caused the mechanics of the Williams garage to depart. The British qualified eighth when Max Verstappen received a penalty of 10 seconds for his own unsafe liberation, caused by contact with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
As a result of the penalty of five seconds, Bearman now loses the point granted by the eighth position and has been degraded to the 15th position ahead of Hulkenberg’s teammate in Sauber, Gabriel Bortoleto.
The report of the FIA commissioners said: “The commissioners reviewed the video and video tests in the car. The 87 car came out to the trajectory of the 27 car that arrived through the fast lane, causing the 27 car to stop and take an evasive action.”
Bearman’s penalty thus elevates Yuki Tsunoda at the top eight positions, ensuring that Red Bull has added at least one point in Saturday’s race after the penalty of Verstappen.
Tsunoda was the first pilot to stop to ride smooth tires after leaving from the Pitlane, after being trapped by traffic in the classification and losing the opportunity to make a second half in the SQ1 in the middle of a delay when leaving boxes.
Tsunoda’s rhythm with the middle tire thus demonstrated to the other teams that the race had quickly approached the change point for slicks, which caused a series of stops to get rid of intermediate tires.
The results of the investigations on the infringement of Alex Albon’s security car and Liam Lawson’s clash with Fernando Alonso are currently pending, which could further change the distribution of sprint points.
