Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini has been dealt double post-race sanctions for causing a huge collision at the start of the F2 Feature Race at the Azerbaijan GP.
The Indian driver failed to get off the line at lights-out, sending Oliver Goethe and Josep Maria Martí careering into the back of his car. Martí was catapulted into the air after colliding with the back of the Invicta, rolling in his car before coming to a stop at the side of the track.
Following the race, it was found that Maini failed to engage the startup procedure, causing him to stall at the start. According to the official FIA documentation, the incident ‘constituted a breach of Article 1.6.1 of the FIA Formula 2 Technical Regulations and Article 10.15 of the F2 2024 System User Manual’. The stewards found the Invicta driver to be the sole cause of the collision which left the three drivers out of the race, and have dealt him sanctions accordingly.
The Sanctions
Firstly, Maini’s breach of the Technical Regulations and the System User Manual has seen him disqualified from the Feature Race classification – but the Invicta evidently failed to gain any points regardless. However, Maini has also been hit with a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision, which he will serve in the next race he competes in. The penalty was originally dealt as a ten-second penalty, but due to Maini failing to finish the Feature race, the penalty has been converted to a grid penalty for the Invicta’s next race.
Maini will therefore have a five-place grid penalty to serve in December when the series returns to the track at Qatar for the penultimate weekend of racing in 2025.
Featured Image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
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