Jack Doohan was hit with a 10-second post-race penalty after the Chinese Grand Prix sprint, as well as two penalty points. The Alpine driver collided with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto on the final lap in Shanghai following a clumsy move at the Turn 14 hairpin.
The two rookies were fighting over P17 on the final tour of the Shanghai International Circuit with Doohan trailing, and the Australian made a move down the inside at Turn 14 – the most common overtaking spot on the track. Unfortunately, his move was poorly timed, and Doohan lost momentum at the apex with a tight line on entry. This meant that he tagged Bortoleto into a spin, ruining both of their races.
Doohan and Bortoleto were fortunate not to collect the latter’s Sauber team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, who was forced to slam on the brakes to avoid running into the back of the stricken duo. Carlos Sainz managed to cruise around the outside of the incident, avoiding contact with his Williams machine.
The stewards took a dim view of Doohan’s role in the crash. After a post-race review, the young Australian driver was handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points as a punishment.
Explaining their penalty decision, the stewards wrote: “DOO attempted to overtake BOR on the inside of turn 14 but locked up at the apex of the corner and collided with BOR. DOO suggested that he was in control of the overtake but the presence of the two Haas cars and the line they took compromised his overtake attempt.
“First, as the car attempting to overtake, the responsibility was on DOO to ensure that it was done in a safe manner and in line with the regulations and the guidelines.
“Secondly, applying the Driving Standards Guidelines, DOO did not have the right to the corner at the apex and should have backed off – here, because of the speed at which he approached the corner for the overtake and the resulting lockup and understeer, a collision was caused, for which DOO was predominantly to blame.”
This shunt was nothing short of a disaster for Doohan, who is feeling the heat with Franco Colapinto waiting in the wings to replace him. The Gold Coast-born racer has impressed in both of his qualifying sessions in 2025 but has crashed both times in his two race appearances thus far.
