Martin Brundle says ‘stunning’ F1 driver would once have been ‘sent home’ for what he did at British Grand Prix

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Oliver Bearman should be starting Sunday’s British Grand Prix inside the top 10. But a 10-place grid penalty has shattered what would have been a dream result.

Bearman reached Q3 for just the second time in his rookie year and set the eighth-fastest time. He was the quickest midfield driver on the day, with only the top four teams ahead.

But he’s facing a P18 start for failing to respect red flags during the final practice session. Bearman bizarrely slammed the barriers on the way into the pits in the final minutes.

The stewards felt this was reckless, and as is typical for such offences, they penalised him harshly. Most frustratingly of all, perhaps, he’d committed the same infraction in Monaco earlier this season.

Martin Brundle laments ‘crazy’ moment from Oliver Bearman

Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle described Bearman’s pace as ‘stunning’ during qualifying. He even cracked the top six in Q2.

But Brundle had virtually no sympathy for the 20-year-old after his FP3 blunder. He says it was ‘crazy’ to attack the pit entry in the circumstances.

And he also added that, under previous rulebooks, Bearman could have found himself disqualified from the event for such conduct. The red flags were flying as the stricken Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto was recovered.

“That was crazy,” Brundle said. “You’re going past a red flashing panel and accelerating like crazy to try to pit in.

“The stewards’ report said he was even faster on that trial pit in than he was on an earlier trial. That’s why they’ve hit him so hard.”

“There are decades past where you’d have been sent home for something like that, disqualified from the event. He wasn’t meaning any harm, but you can’t start trying to test the pit-lane [entry] when there are red panels flashing at you.”

Damon Hill takes a different view of Oliver Bearman’s British Grand Prix performance

Commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live, 1996 world champion Damon Hill said Bearman’s exploits showed the power of a driver harnessing their anger. He was in awe of the Haas star’s pace.

“It just shows what happens when you get angry, Ollie, that’s a fantastic performance,” he said. “He kept on to that result and that’s astonished me.”

• READ MORE: Oliver Bearman shares what he’s ‘learnt’ from watching Lewis Hamilton during his rookie Formula 1 season

Bearman apologised to the team afterwards, saying: “I’m so sorry about earlier because that’s not good enough. But I’m glad we could show we had potential today.”

Max Verstappen was amused by Bearman’s error on the radio, but it leaves him with a somewhat precarious tally of eight penalty points. He received the maximum of four for this transgression.