Noel León loses front row start for F2 sprint; others penalised after Spa qualifying
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Campos racer Noel León has lost his quickest lap time from Formula 2's qualifying in Spa on Friday, after the stewards revealed he was the sole cause of a red flag during the 30-minute session. This decision sees the Mexican driver lose his fastest lap time of the session, demoting him to the rear of the grid for the pair of races.
His incident came early on in the session, with the race director having declared the track wet due to the rain spitting down at the beginning of the session. However, with it only being a light shower, all drivers headed onto the circuit on supersoft tyres to kick off the session.
The aforementioned incident occurred six minutes into the session. As León tiptoed down to the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section, he moved towards the wet inside kerb as he went up the hill. Due to the slippery nature of the kerb and the Campos man's colder tyres, he spun on the exit, before stopping by the side of the track.
With the Campos stranded dangerously on the left-hand side of the track, a red flag was thrown to halt proceedings. However, León was able to get his car into reverse gear, before finding drive and heading back to the pits.
Despite running strongly later into the session and qualifying up in 10th, León remained under investigation for being the sole cause of the red flag during the session. Should a driver be found to have caused a red flag, their fastest lap time is deleted, according to Article 33.5 of the Sporting Regulations.
"Considering the unique sequence of events in this case, the Stewards decided they would not immediately hold the driver responsible and hence permitted him to continue," read the report from the FIA.
"It was the driver's choice to continue in the session, knowing that all times set thereafter may have been invalidated."
"No lap time had been set prior to the red flag, so the Stewards were unable to delete the fastest lap set prior to the red flag. Car 5 therefore has no valid lap time recorded during the qualifying session," the report concluded.
As such, León has now lost his lap times from the session, demoted to a start from 22nd and last on the grid for the pair of races at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Trident's Laurens van Hoepen had also been summoned to the stewards for stopping on track and being the sole cause of a red flag later in the session. However, as he suffered a technical issue, he would face no infringement.
Further penalties were dished out to VAR's Rafael Villagómez (five places) and the AIX pairing of Cian Shields and Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (10 positions each) for both races, due to their yellow flag infringements during the session.
Here is the revised starting order for the Sprint Race on Saturday and the Feature Race on Sunday:
Revised Grid order: F2 sprint at Spa:
Sebastián Montoya (PREMA Racing)
Martinius Stenshorne (Rodin Motorsport)
Roman Bilinski (DAMS)
Joshua Dürksen (Invicta Racing)
Dino Beganovic (DAMS)
John Bennett (Trident)
Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing)
Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (ART Grand Prix)
Rafa Câmara (Invicta Racing)
Nicolás Varrone (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Kush Maini (ART Grand Prix)
Ollie Goethe (MP Motorsport)
Gabriele Minì (MP Motorsport)
Colton Herta (Hitech TGR)
Laurens van Hoepen (Trident)
Mari Boya (PREMA Racing)
Ritomo Miyata (Hitech TGR)
Rafael Villagómez (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (AIX Racing)
Cian Shields (AIX Racing)
Noel León (Campos Racing)
Grid order: F2 Feature Race in Spa
Rafa Câmara (Invicta Racing)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (ART Grand Prix)
Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport)
Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing)
John Bennett (Trident)
Dino Beganovic (DAMS)
Joshua Dürksen (Invicta Racing)
Roman Bilinski (DAMS)
Martinius Stenshorne (Rodin Motorsport)
Sebastián Montoya (PREMA Racing)
Nicolás Varrone (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Kush Maini (ART Grand Prix)
Ollie Goethe (MP Motorsport)
Gabriele Minì (MP Motorsport)
Colton Herta (Hitech TGR)
Laurens van Hoepen (Trident)
Mari Boya (PREMA Racing)
Ritomo Miyata (Hitech TGR)
Rafael Villagómez (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (AIX Racing)
Cian Shields (AIX Racing)
Noel León (Campos Racing)
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