FIA outlines punishments for two teams following practice infringements

Two teams fell foul of the rules during the second practice session at Zandvoort, resulting in a punishment from the FIA.

Several separate unsafe releases occurred during the second practice hour on Friday, resulting in two teams being hit with financial penalties.

Williams and Sauber land in hot water over unsafe releases

Williams and Sauber have each been issued with 5000 euro fines following the practice day at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Williams picked up their fine over an unsafe release for Alex Albon, with the British-Thai racer being released into the path of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Citing a breach of Article 34.14 (a) of the Sporting Regulations, the stewards issued the fine and said: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), the driver of Car 18 (Lance Stroll), team representatives and video and in-car video evidence.

“[Albon] was released from the pit stop station into the path of [Stroll] and [Stroll] had to brake to avoid a collision.

“The Stewards note that the mistake was made by the team and not the driver. Therefore, consistent with prior decisions, a fine to the team is imposed.”

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Investigating a near-identical incident between Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and VCARB’s Daniel Ricciardo down the Zandvoort pitlane, the stewards confirmed the same punishment for Sauber under the same article breach for Zhou.

“[Zhou] was released from the pit stop station into the path of [Ricciardo] and [Ricciardo] had to brake to avoid a collision,” read the verdict.

Earlier in the day, during the first practice, Williams also picked up a separate 100 euro fine as Logan Sargeant was found to have exceeded the pitlane speed limit by 0.5km/h – the pitlane speed limit is set at 60km/h for this event, due to the narrow pitlane at the old-school Zandvoort circuit.

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