Louis Deletraz has been handed a ten-second time penalty by the stewards at the Circuito de Jerez after his race one collision with title rival Tom Dillmann during Saturday’s opening Formula V8 3.5 race of the weekend.
The Fortec Motorsports driver was deemed to have been at fault for the lap seventeen clash at turn nine, with Deletraz attempting to pass the AVF by Adrian Vallés driver for fourth position.
Dillmann had taken the position from the Swiss driver on the opening lap and had repelled the challenge of Deletraz up until the point they clashed. Deletraz had made a move earlier on the lap that they clashed at the end of the back straight but saw Dillmann re-pass him.
The penalty means Deletraz drops out of the points, promoting Aurélien Panis to fourth for Arden Motorsport ahead of Rene Binder, Yu Kanamaru, Beitske Visser, Roy Nissany, Pietro Fittipaldi and Jack Aitken.
It also puts Dillmann back on top of the championship standings by eleven points, the same gap they arrived in Spain with, with three races of the season remaining.
Aitken’s position remains provisional however, with the team under investigation following a post-qualifying infringement when his car was found to be outside the series’ technical regulations. He was able to keep his pole position due to an appeal by his RP Motorsport team, but a shocking start meant he was unable to finish on the road inside the top ten.
