Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has confirmed the American outfit will be investigating the incredible actions of junior driver Santino Ferrucci in Formula 2 at Silverstone this past weekend.

The 20-year-old was given a combined 66,000 Euros in fines and banned for four races for a range of offences including intentionally hitting his teammate Arjun Maini on the cool-down lap after also running him off the track during the Sunday sprint race.

He was also caught using his mobile phone in the car while moving between the paddock and the pit-lane before the race and then refused to attend the stewards' meetings afterwards to deal with the incidents.

Now his future in motorsport appears in great jeopardy, particularly given his initial reaction to a Sky Sports tweet which quoted Maini as saying to his team: "There is something wrong with my teammate’s brain.”

“Says the one crying on the radio. I just did my drugs test so I’m all clear,” Ferrucci wrote. “Maybe if they showed what you did to me during the race more people would understand.”

The Trident team, with which he drove, also look set to drop the American after tweeting their "solidarity" with Maini and his family over the "unsportsmanlike and above all uncivilised behaviour that he was forced to endure not only during this last weekend by Santino Ferrucci and father, who accompanied him.

"Never in these 12 years of sporting activity has anything even close to this ever occurred. We apologise for the show that we have regretfully offered,” their statement added.

Asked for comment by Motorsport Week on Sunday, Haas chief Steiner admitted it was too soon to comment on the American's place within the team.

“I’m aware of it, I’ve seen the incident once on the TV when they showed the race,” he said.

“I was made aware that there is some problems, but I said I’m not going to deal with them today. I’m going to deal with that one during the week when I’ve got more information."

As for Ferrucci, he has tried to make amends by giving his side of the story in a tweet released on Monday.

"I want to send my sincerest apologies for my actions on Sunday at the FIA F2 race at Silverstone Circuit," he said.

"I used extremely poor judgement at the conclusion of the race getting far too close to my teammate Arjun and swerved away only to graze his tyre, fortunately causing no damage or issue to his car.

"There was no intent, premeditation or any type of retaliation by my actions, only anger and frustration as this has been a horrific year.

"While there has been much provocation leading to my mental lapse, it is still not an excuse and I will make sure that this does not happen again," he added.

"I realize I have embarrassed many people and I apologize to my sponsors, Trident, my fellow drivers, Haas F1, FIA, FIA F2, my fans, friends and family.

"I also want to apologise to the FIA Stewards for not being able to attend the hearing.

"I was randomly selected for a drug test, as were others, and this delayed my return to the paddock by over an hour. At that point, I very quickly packed and had to leave for the airport to catch an early afternoon flight back to the US to attend to an extremely urgent time sensitive family medical issue."

Nyck de Vries cruised to the fastest time in Free Practice for the FIA Formula 2 Championship round in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing driver clocked in a 1:21.670 to secure his place at the top of the timesheets, batting off DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi with a 0.650s advantage while Lando Norris of Carlin finished the session in third.

Warm, sunny conditions on the French Riviera greeted the drivers as they filed out onto the Circuit de Monaco, with Trident’s Santino Ferrucci queuing up first ahead of Jack Aitken (ART Grand Prix), with Arjun Maini in hot pursuit. A virtual safety car period took place in the first five minutes to further test the car’s VSC functionality ahead of the weekend, before full-speed running got underway.

Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin) set the early pace, later trading best sector times with Ralph Boschung (MP Motorsport) in the opening stages before Norris swept in to depose them from holding the benchmark time. Meanwhile, Latifi and de Vries found traffic a struggle in the early stages as they had to abort their early hot laps; the Dutchman collected the rear of Norris on the exit of the Rascasse and broke his front wing, requiring a swift detour to the pits to repair the damage.

Norris then wound the times down before Luca Ghiotto (Campos Vexatec Racing) was the first driver to enter the 1m22s. RUSSIAN TIME’s Artem Markelov then usurped his former teammate, collecting the fastest time on soft tyres before the field switched to supersofts in the latter stages. Carlin were first onto the softer compound, leaving Sette Camara and Norris to set a flurry of quick times before de Vries grabbed the advantage in the final ten minutes.

Latifi slotted into second shortly after de Vries’ headline time, albeit with a huge gulf in time behind the pace. Norris was just two-hundredths of a second down on the Canadian, as Aitken popped up into fourth place. Sette Camara held on for fifth ahead of Alexander Albon (DAMS), as Markelov claimed seventh place. Louis Delétraz (Charouz Racing System), BWT Arden’s Maximilian Günther and Ghiotto completed the top 10.

The qualifying session will take place this afternoon and, with the field separated into two groups ahead of the session thanks to Monaco’s compact nature, there is much to be won and lost in the session – especially with overtaking opportunities at a premium.

2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship Round 4 Free Practice – Monte Carlo, Monaco

George Russell claimed the best time of the morning session on Day 3 of FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing at Le Castellet, France, ahead of ART Grand Prix teammate Jack Aitken with a 1:42.396 lap.

As teams sought to make the most of the remaining time available on the last day of testing, Arjun Maini was first on the scene at the start of the day. The Trident driver was followed onto the circuit by both ART drivers and teammate Santino Ferrucci, as the rest of the field filtered onto the track for an early flurry of activity.

Roy Nissany (Campos Vexatec Racing) brought out the first red flag after 20 minutes of running having stopped on the Mistral Straight. At this stage, Russell headed the standings with a medium tyre benchmark in the 1m43s, and after the session restarted the British driver began to trade best times with teammate Aitken. Although the latter held the advantage after the first hour, Russell soon recouped his position at the top by the midway point of the session.

Two further red flags were shown during the second hour of the session; Antonio Fuoco stopped on the circuit for the first, while RUSSIAN TIME’s Artem Markelov and Ralph Boschung (MP Motorsport) came to a halt within seconds of each other for the second.

Luca Ghiotto (Campos) led the field out as the session quickly restarted, as the drivers spent the rest of the morning getting stuck into their long-run programs. Russell’s time remained impenetrable, as the teams focused on race pace for the remainder, with Aitken finishing second just under two tenths shy of his teammate. Between them, the ART duo clocked in over 100 laps, with Aitken managing 56 of them.

Nyck De Vries (PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing) was third fastest ahead of DAMS’ Alexander Albon, as Louis Delétraz of Charouz Racing System completed the top five. Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin) was sixth fastest ahead of teammate Lando Norris, as Maximilian Günther and Nirei Fukuzumi of BWT Arden finished eighth and ninth respectively. Replacing Oliver Rowland at DAMS for the third day of running, Daniel Ticktum rounded out the top 10.