A MERCEDES star was stripped of their race win after taking the chequered flag twice.
The all-female F1 Academy enjoyed it’s first weekend of the season in Saudi Arabia after strengthening its tie with Formula One.
GettyMercedes-backed F1 Academy driver Doriane Pin saw her second race win stripped away[/caption]
RexPin had bizarrely continued racing after the race the had finished because she had not been told to stop[/caption]
RexRace Control handed Pin a 20-second penalty which demoted her from P1[/caption]
And while British 18-year-old Oliver Bearman took the headlines in F1 for his impressive P7 finish for Ferrari, it was a stripped race win for Doriane Pin which sparked controversy in the sister series.
Pin, 20, had dominated on track throughout the weekend, claiming pole in qualifying before winning both races.
However, Mercedes-backed Pin saw her race win cruelly taken away in a rarely seen sequence of events.
After taking the chequered flag the first time, Pin’s Prema team were busy celebrating the double win on the pit wall.
But because her engineers were too busy celebrating, Pin continued to drive around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit at race speed on what should have been the cooldown lap.
Pin went on to complete two full laps before the red flag was shown to stop her.
Race Control had to impose a drive-through penalty as per the rules, but because it could not be applied mid-race it was applied afterwards.
This converted into a 20-second time penalty and consequently caused Pin to drop to P9 in the standings, allowing Alpine junior Abbi Pulling to inherit the win in race two.
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F1 Academy explained: “Doriane Pin has received a drive-through penalty for crossing the chequered flag twice and completing two laps at full speed until the red flag was shown.
“As the penalty could not be served in-race, it has been converted into a 20-second penalty added to her elapsed race time.”
Following the race Pin said a radio issue meant she kept going at race speed as she was unsure whether it was the last lap or not.
She said: “I had a little bit of an issue with the radio. I couldn’t hear anything by the engineers so I didn’t know if it was the last lap or not. I kept pushing in case it was.”
It had not been evident on the broadcast as her engineer asked: “Doriane, what are you doing? It’s the chequered flag.”
To which she replied: “You didn’t tell me!”
After having the win stripped away, Pin took to social media to say: “An unfortunate end to an incredible first weekend in F1 Academy, the team and the car were amazing, but a post race penalty drops me to P9.
“Will come back even stronger in Miami. Congrats to @AbbiPulling on P1.”
The change sees Pulling also inherit the lead of the drivers championship with 44 points.
Ferrari-coloured Maya Weug is also now above Pin on 33 points with the Pin herself sitting on 32 points, 14 clear of McLaren-backed Bianca Bustamante.
The next event for F1 Academy will be in Miami between May 3 and 5.
Meanwhile, the next F1 race will be in Australia on March 24.
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