Drivers awarded 22 separate penalties
Twenty-two separate penalties have been applied following yesterday's GP3 Series practice session at Hockenheim
Twenty-one of the penalties relate to a single incident, and were triggered when Addax's Pablo Sanchez Lopez spun and became stranded at the exit of the final corner.
While marshals worked to retrieve his car under double-waved yellows, two-thirds of the field set their quickest times over the final sector. Several of the offenders pointed out that the drying track meant that they had improved their times over when it had been wetter despite backing off, but after deliberating overnight the stewards decided to apply the penalties right across the board.
Consequently, Pal Varhaug has been dropped seven grid places (his punishment being increased on the grounds that he lost control under yellows as well as speeding up), and Felipe Guimaraes will be docked five places.
Three-place penalties have been applied to Leonardo Cordeiro, Daniel Juncadella, Nigel Melker, Mirko Bortolotti, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Ivan Lukashevich, Lucas Foresti, Doru Sechelariu, Daniel Morad, Diego Nunes (who also has a 10-place penalty carried over into this weekend for causing a crash in the previous round at Silverstone) and Oliver Oakes, the latter also picking up an additional 10-place penalty for ignoring a red flag earlier in the session.
Two-place penalties will be applied to Michael Christensen, Simon Trummer, Stefano Coletti, Tobias Hegewald, Vittorio Ghirelli, Alexander Rossi, and provisional front-row starters James Jakes and Robert Wickens, meaning that Carlin's Josef Newgarden appears set to start today's race from pole.
Final starting order after penalties:
Pos Driver Team 1. Josef Newgarden Carlin 2. James Jakes Manor 3. Robert Wickens Status 4. Roberto Merhi Atech CRS 5. Renger van der Zande RSC Mucke 6. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Manor 7. Michael Christensen MW Arden 8. Rio Haryanto Manor 9. Daniel Juncadella Tech 1 10. Esteban Gutierrez ART 11. Nico Muller Jenzer 12. Simon Trummer Jenzer 13. Nigel Melker RSC Mucke 14. Stefano Coletti Tech 1 15. Dean Smith Carlin 16. Mirko Bortolotti Addax 17. Miki Monras MW Arden 18. Tobias Hegewald RSC Mucke 19. Alexander Rossi ART 20. Pablo Sanchez Lopez Addax 21. Pal Varhaug Jenzer 22. Doru Sechelariu Tech 1 23. Leonardo Cordeiro MW Arden 24. Daniel Morad Status 25. Lucas Foresti Carlin 26. Vittorio Ghirelli Atech CRS 27. Felipe Guimaraes Addax 28. Pedro Nunes ART 29. Ivan Lukashevich Status 30. Oliver Oakes Atech CRS
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