Three drivers have been found guilty of blocking after a hectic GP2 Series Qualifying session at Hockenheim and penalised with a three-place grid-drop penalty.
The most noticeable driver to be penalised is Johnny Cecotto Jr, with the Trident Racing driver having been found guilty of blocking the EQ8 Caterham Racing machine of Rio Haryanto at turn 13. He drops from his original seventh place on the grid to tenth.
The other two drivers have been given the penalty for blocking the same driver; both Takuya Izawa and Haryanto were found guilty of getting in the way of Racing Engineering driver Raffaele Marciello at turn 13 but on different laps. Ironically, Marciello benefits from Cecotto’s penalty that moves him from eighth to seventh on the grid.
“I am very unhappy because I could have finished in a top three position, but traffic kept me from doing so,” said Marciello after the session. “This is no excuse, but it was avoidable by other drivers.”
ART Grand Prix driver Izawa’s penalty means he drops eight places on the grid after carrying the five-place penalty from Silverstone for causing a collision with Arthur Pic late in the Sprint Race; he will start twenty-third.
Haryanto has struggled to twenty-second on the grid and will now start on the back row of the grid in twenty-fifth alongside Dutchman Daniel de Jong of MP Motorsport.
