Goethe handed sprint race win as stewards cancel his penalty, Leon falls to third

Oliver Goethe has regained his victory in the Formula 3 sprint race after the stewards cancelled his five-second penalty.

The stewards have also cancelled a penalty applied to Tim Tramnitz and handed a five-second time penalty to Noel Leon, who was originally declared the winner of Saturday morning’s race. The changes promote Goether to first place ahead of Tramnitz and Leon.

Goethe crossed the finishing line first in this morning’s sprint race after passing Leon at the end of a Virtual Safety Car period on the final lap. However as the race ended the stewards announced Goethe had been given a five-second time penalty for failing to observe the Safety Car delta time earlier in the race. That promoted Leon to first place.

Tramnitz was given the same penalty as Goethe. However five hours after the race the stewards cancelled both penalties, ruling that changes made to the regulations before the season began were not correctly applied.

Drivers are required to stay above the minimum time until the message ‘Safety Car in this lap’ is displayed. Both Goethe and Tramnitz were below the time in marshalling sectors 13, 14 and 15, however the stewards determined the cars had been in sector six when the ‘Safety Car in’ message was shown.

“The stewards concluded that according to Article 40.7 from marshalling sector six, the provision of being above the minimum delta time did not apply anymore, therefore the five second penalty showed in the [Safety Car delta times] matrix was incorrect.”

The decision to rescind Goethe’s penalty promoted him to first place ahead of Leon. The cancellation of Tramnitz’s penalty, plus a separate penalty handed to Leon, meant all three podium places changed hands.

Leon was given a five-second time penalty for failing to follow the race director’s instructions at a restart. Drivers had been told not to weave after turn 17 (Rivazza 1) at Safety Car restarts.

“Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined that car 20 (Leon) was weaving after the turn 17 all throughout to turn 18,” they ruled. “Although there was no risk of an incident the driver of car 20 did gain a sporting advantage by warming up his tyres after turn 17.”

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