Luca Ghiotto has been handed a five-second time penalty for his part in the incident that saw Sergio Sette Camara retire from the Feature race at the Baku City Circuit on Saturday, meaning the Italian has fallen from sixth to ninth in the final result.
Ghiotto, who races for the UNI-Virtuosi Racing outfit, was deemed by the stewards in Azerbaijan to have caused the collision with DAMS’ Sette Camara, with the Brazilian ending up in the wall on the start and finish straight as drivers prepared to restart following a safety car period, ironically caused by Ghiotto’s team-mate Guanyu Zhou crashing out.
Ghiotto was handed the penalty with stewards determining he had failed to maintain position behind Sette Camara, with the five seconds added to his time dropping him behind Prema Racing’s Sean Gelael, Sauber Junior Team’s Juan Manuel Correa, and ART Grand Prix’s Nikita Mazepin, who inherits reverse grid pole position for Sunday’s Sprint race as a result.
Sette Camara had already laid the blame on Ghiotto for the incident that resulted in the Brazilian retiring from fourth position, with the Brazilian running just behind team-mate Nicholas Latifi when the incident happens.
“In my view, I don’t think I was the one to blame for that one,” said Sette Camara to Motorsport.com. I was looking at the car ahead, if he brakes I need to be in full control of the situation to not smash the guy ahead.
“While I was weaving and looking for the leader and everything, my rear wheel touched the front wheel of Luca. The guy behind has to control the situation as he has the view. Everyone was searching for temperature. Aitken was going quite slow, so everyone is trying to weave and brake, otherwise it’s more dangerous as everyone would arrive in Turn 1 locking up the brakes.
“If you look at the video, the moment of strong weaving was already passed. I was fully focussed to be ready to go on power when the leader went on power, so I think it was Luca being on a strange place on the track [that caused the crash]. Many times I thought ‘he’s going for it, he’s not going for it’.
“In a moment like this, it’s probably when Luca did the mistake. It was not so dramatic. I think his concentration dropped for one moment.”
Dorian Boccolacci has been handed a penalty by the stewards in Baku – Credit: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship
Dorian Boccolacci, who finished fifth for Campos Racing, has also received a penalty, with the Frenchman dropping two places on the grid for the Sprint race for failing to enter the pit lane when directed to by the race director.
Boccolacci, a former member of the Lotus Junior Team and a former team-mate to current Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Alexander Albon during his days in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship, was set to start the race from fourth on the grid on Sunday but will instead start from sixth.
Boccolacci’s team-mate Jack Aitken took his first Feature race victory on Saturday ahead of Nyck de Vries and Jordan King.
