Esteban Ocon received three-place penalty for the Japanese Grand Prix for failing to slow sufficient for red flags. The stewards found the Force India driver did reduce his speed as required. But then he increased it when he became confused by some beeps he heard on his car’s radio.
Ocon also received two penalty points on his licences, his first of the current 12-month period. The penalty drops Ocon to 11th on the grid. And it promotes Sebastian Vettel to eighth position ahead of Perez and Leclerc.
“The driver informed the stewards, and the telemetry showed, that he had slowed down for the red flags,” the stewards noted.
“However, after Turn 4, he heard some beeps on his radio that suggested that he was too slow. And he sped up briefly to regularize his speed. In doing so, he briefly exceeded the delta by a maximum of -1.68 over three mini sectors. As a result, he had failed to maintain the speed delta required under the regulations.
“He acknowledged the infringement and attributed it to the confusion caused by the beeps and the system currently used by the team in such situations. In the end, given the importance of observance of the speed restrictions while red flags are being shown and recognising the limited extent of the breach, we decided to impose the above penalty.”
