Barnicoat excluded from European F3 race with illegal floor

Ben Barnicoat was excluded from the final European F3 race at the Norisring last weekend with an illegal floor.

The British Hitech GP driver finished ninth but was stripped of the result after the front-left corner of his car’s floor was deemed to be lower than the threshold allowed.

The team had replaced the floor overnight after Barnicoat hit the wall in the second race on Saturday.

But team boss Oliver Oakes was surprised considering the floor’s legality was checked after the repair.

“It is just the front-left corner of his floor, a little bit disappointing but rules are rules,” said Oakes. “Given the circumstances it is a bit of a nightmare.

“I don’t want to blame people in this situation, it is just a bit annoying as we did go on the [legality] patch in the early hours of the morning and it was fine.”

It was a difficult weekend for the British drivers, with George Russell taking a best result of third in the opener. William Buller made a return to F3 with Carlin but had a miserable time with two retirements and a 12th place in the finale.

Lance Stroll extended his points advantage with two more wins. The Prema Powerteam racer was victorious in races one and three, and finished a close second in race two behind Anthoine Hubert – who took his maiden win.