Helio Castroneves has been penalised eight championship points following a post-race review by IndyCar officials of last weekend’s encounter on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
The Team Penske driver was determined to have breached Rule 9.3.3 (avoidable contact) when he clipped Scott Dixon at the first corner, triggering a chain reaction that resulted in further contact and spins among the cars behind.
“Following every event, the IndyCar race stewards conduct a review of all racing incidents utilising all the tools available – including car data, video replays and interviews with the competitors involved,” said Derrick Walker, IndyCar president of competition and operations.
“With the benefit of additional camera angles during our post-race review of Saturday’s race, the stewards determined actions of the #3 car (Castroneves) were the cause of the first-lap incident.
“This obviously changed our view of the entire incident. At the conclusion of every post-race review, all penalty options are available to the stewards and they determined an avoidable contact penalty was warranted.”
