Both Sergio Pérez and Brendon Hartley have been dropped to the bottom of the Bahrain Grand Prix results table after the FIA decided to issue both drivers a 30 second time penalty for a pre-race incident. This penalty is not related to the first lap collision between the drivers, for which Hartley already received a 10 second time penalty.
The issue that has been penalized occurred on the formation lap. Both drivers started from the sixth row of the grid. At the start of the formation lap, Hartley was slow off of the grid, allowing Pérez to overtake the Toro Rosso driver. Pérez remained in front of Hartley for the duration of the formation lap, although the pair did lineup in the correct grid positions.
Nevertheless, the stewards summoned both drivers after the race to discuss the incident, where it was decided that a 30 second time penalty was justified in both cases. Pérez was given a penalty for failing to maintain his position during the formation lap.
Meanwhile, Hartley was penalized because he failed to regain his position before the safety car line. Drivers who fail to regain their position during the formation lap before the safety car line are required to start from the pitlane.
Both infractions carry a 10 second stop and go penalty under the regulations, but because the matter was not investigated until after the race had been completed, 30 seconds was added to the race time for each driver, dropping Pérez and Hartley from P12 and P13 to P16 and P17 respectively.
Although both penalties also carry penalty points on the Super License, the stewards opted not to award Pérez with any penalty points. On the other hand, Hartley was awarded two penalty points on his license, which will remain on his license for 12 months, increasing his total to 4. The penalty points were likely awarded to Hartley because of the belief that the incident could have been avoided had he known the correct procedures for the situation.
Fortunately, the penalty has no impact on either the World Drivers’ Championship or World Constructors’ Championship since neither driver was in a point-scoring position.
