Stewards light up a quiet Monza: Bearman inches toward ban as Ocon, Antonelli also cited
Monza didn’t detonate on track this year, but the stewards kept the lights on. Three drivers — Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon and Kimi Antonelli — left the Italian Grand Prix with fresh penalty points on their Super Licences, headlined by a costly strike for Bearman that nudges him uncomfortably close to a race ban.
The flashpoint came on Lap 41 in Bearman’s duel with Carlos Sainz. Sainz sent a move up the inside and had his front axle ahead at the apex — under the current guidelines, that made the corner his. Bearman didn’t yield, contact followed, and Sainz looped around. The Monza panel of stewards, including Derek Warwick, ruled Bearman responsible, handing the Haas driver a 10-second in-race penalty and two licence points.
The bigger story is the tally. Those two put Bearman on 10 penalty points over the last 12 months, just two shy of an automatic one-race ban. None of his points are due to expire until November 2, leaving four race weekends to tiptoe through. It’s a precarious place for a 20-year-old who’s been on the stewards’ radar: two points for a clash with Franco Colapinto at the 2024 Brazilian GP, two more for overtaking Sainz under a red flag in FP2 at this year’s Monaco round, and a hefty four for crashing at pit entry under red flag conditions during FP3 at Silverstone.
Elsewhere, Ocon picked up a single penalty point after a squeeze on Lance Stroll approaching Turn 4. The stewards judged he failed to leave enough room, forcing the Aston Martin off the road. It’s Ocon’s first point in the last 12 months — hardly panic stations, but a reminder that Monza’s braking zones are brutally binary if you misjudge a car’s width by a few centimeters.
Antonelli also drew a rebuke for what the report described as “driving erratically” in combat with Alex Albon. The Mercedes junior moved left while alongside, attempting to pinch Albon and pushing the Williams onto the grass — “potentially dangerous,” said the stewards. Because Albon kept it straight and made the pass shortly after, the panel went lighter: one licence point for Antonelli, taking him to five over the past year. His first point won’t drop off the sheet until June 2026.
There was one more note in the appendix: Sainz received a reprimand for failing to rejoin the track at the prescribed point after his tangle with Bearman.
If the classified result suggested a straightforward afternoon — Max Verstappen took the win, with McLaren team orders grabbing the headlines in the paddock corridor afterward — the paperwork told a different tale. Bearman’s situation is the most pressing. Ten points is the sport’s version of walking the pit wall without a handrail. For a driver still stitching together his rookie-season margins, the next month looks like a stress test: measured aggression, no red flags to flirt with, and absolutely no grey areas in wheel-to-wheel fights.
Antonelli’s citation felt like a line in the sand rather than a hammer. He’s been elbows-out — and that’s fine — but the stewards are clearly watching the nuances of how he moves under braking. Ocon’s brush with Stroll was more neat-and-tidy: a textbook “left no space” call that won’t linger beyond a single line on a spreadsheet.
Monza itself was classic Monza, right down to the stewards having to adjudicate the consequences of ambition meeting reality at chicanes designed to punish half-commits. Not the wildest Italian GP we’ve seen, but for a few drivers, the drive back through the Parco di Monza felt a lot quieter than the walk into Race Control.
Key outcomes at a glance:
– Oliver Bearman: 10-second penalty + 2 licence points for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz (now on 10 points; two away from a ban; no expiry until Nov 2)
– Esteban Ocon: 1 licence point for forcing Lance Stroll off at Turn 4 (first point in 12 months)
– Kimi Antonelli: 1 licence point for squeezing Alex Albon onto the grass (now on 5; earliest expiry June 2026)
– Carlos Sainz: reprimand for an improper rejoin
The championship rolls on. For Bearman, though, every lap between now and November looks like a balancing act — one misjudgment away from a weekend on the sofa.
