Force India's Esteban Ocon has been handed a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow down sufficiently when red flags were shown for Nico Hulkenberg's crashed Renault during third practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Although Ocon slowed for the incident, the stewards explained that a system of beeps confused the Frenchman and he sped up to remain within what he thought was the delta time mandated by the regulations, however this meant he was going too quickly through three mini sectors.
"The driver informed the Stewards, and the telemetry showed, that he had slowed down for the red flags," explained the stewards. "However, after Turn 4, he heard some beeps on his radio that suggested that he was too slow and sped up briefly to regularise 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 resulting in an infringement.
"He acknowledged the infringement and attributed it to the confusion caused by the beeps and the system currently being 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."
Ocon qualified eighth ahead of Sebastian Vettel, but will drop to P11, promoting the Ferrari driver, his Force India team-mate Sergio Perez and Sauber's Charles Leclerc.
