12/04/2018
NEWS STORY
Handed a 10s time penalty for a clash with Sergio Perez on the opening lap, Brendon Hartley had insult added to injury in Bahrain when he was further penalised - along with the Mexican - for an incident on the warm-up lap.
With Perez overtaking the Toro Rosso driver, Hartley was handed a further penalty - as was Perez - for failing to establish the correct order again before the safety car line, only taking the correct position once the field arrived back at the grid. However, while both were handed further (30s) time penalties, which demoted them to 16th and 17th positions, the Kiwi was handed two penalty points.
A week later and both are none the wiser as to why they were punished.
"He overtook me with such conviction, it was a bit surprising," admitted Hartley, as he spoke to reporters in Shanghai today, "and then I had other things to focus on.
"To be honest, on the formation lap, we have quite a few jobs we have to do, in terms of temperatures, in terms of synching the gears, switches," he continued, "we have a lot of processes and procedures.
"Perez wasn't acting like, trying to let me pass, and that's the truth of it, and I was honest with the stewards as well. I think Perez also didn't realise he was out of position, if he told you another thing or not, I don't know. I don't know why he passed me, he almost overtook Sainz or Hulkenberg, he almost overtook them before Turn 1 as well."
"Off the line I overtook him," admitted Perez, "but then he didn't retake back his position as he didn't realise that I overtook him. He thought I was always going to start in front of him, so he didn't retake back his position. Which I'm quite surprised about really, why I got the penalty. I've been overtaken many times, I've overtaken many times, but always the guy behind retakes his position. But Hartley didn't do it, and we both got a penalty.
"I don't know, I have to speak with Charlie on this one," he added. "I was quite surprised, you can see on my video that I'd really slowed down a couple of times to make him pass, but I thought he had a problem. What I don't get is why I got the penalty."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Shanghai, here.