McLaren junior close to race ban after latest double grid penalty

F2 championship hopeful Alex Dunne has again been hammered by the stewards just five days after causing a huge multi-car pile-up in the feature race in Monaco.

From pole position, McLaren junior Dunne's poor start resulted in him being involved in a crash with Victor Martins. The Irishman was turned into oncoming traffic, sparking an incident that involved at least 11 cars.

The stewards hit Dunne with a 10-place penalty for this weekend's F2 sprint race at Spain's Circuit de Catalunya.

In practice for the event, remarkably, Dunne and Martins were again the protagonists. On this occasion, as Rodin Motorsport's Dunne made his way down the pit lane, he ran into the back of ART GP's Martins.

The stewards again took a dim view. Dunne has received a three-place penalty for the sprint - meaning a total of 13 places for that race - and an additional three places for the feature race.

A further two points have been added to his driver's record, leaving him on a total of eight and four away from an automatic race ban.

After examining video and telemetry evidence, a stewards' statement read: "The driver of car 17 [Dunne] explained that he was practicing a pit entry at race speed and believed car 14 [Martins] was sufficiently far ahead.

"Upon realising he had misjudged the speed of the car in front, he braked hard, locked his tyres, and attempted to move to the left to avoid a collision. Despite his efforts to avoid the collision, both cars collided at the beginning of the pit lane.

"The driver of car 14 stated that he was not practicing a pit entry and had engaged the speed limiter as usual. He admitted to seeing car 17 approaching rapidly in his mirrors and accelerated in an attempt to avoid contact. 

"Video evidence and data corroborated the drivers’ statements."