SILVERSTONE, U.K. -- American driver Santino Ferrucci, a development driver affiliated with the Haas Formula One team, has been banned for the next four races of the championship's main support series.

Ferrucci, who made his IndyCar debut earlier this year, made contact with Trident teammate Arjun Maini -- who is also a Haas junior -- on the cool-down lap of Sunday's sprint race, held at the British Grand Prix. It was later deemed he had done this deliberately.

The Connecticut native declined to attend the stewards hearing, where testimony from the team stated it had been a premeditated incident. Ferrucci has been suspended from the next two F2 rounds -- both of which feature two races -- and has been given a fine of 60,000 Euros.

Ferrucci was disqualified from the Sunday sprint race in question for an incident with Maini at Turn 4, which came after the Indian driver had tried to make a pass for position. Ferrucci also declined to attend that hearing.

He also incurred a further 6,000 Euros in fines after being observed transitioning from the support paddock to the race pit-lane wearing just one glove and holding a phone in his hand. This breached regulations around safety equipment and violated a ban on wireless transmission devices within the car.

Ferrucci has just seven points to his name this season in Formula 2. Mark Thompson/Getty Images

On Sunday afternoon, Ferrucci took to Twitter to respond to radio messages which had been transmitted by Maini during the race. Maini had said: "There's something wrong with my teammate's brain, he needs to be banned".

Ferruci replied: "Says the one that cry's [sic] on the radio. I just did my drug test so I'm all clear. Maybe if they showed what you did to me during the race people would understand."

He followed that up with a tweet saying: "Lots of keyboard jockeys out here today" with the hashtag #medialove.

Haas' F1 team boss Guenther Steiner spoke to the media shortly before the ban was confirmed. He said he would talk to both drivers this week once he's had a chance to assess the incident properly. Haas' senior management was unavailable for comment immediately after the decision was made having left the Silverstone circuit.

Trident also tweeted on Sunday evening to elaborate on the situation.

Trident intends to show their solidarity and support to @ArjunMaini_ and his family, for the unsportsmanlike and above all uncivilized behavior that he was forced to endure not only during this last weekend by Santino Ferrucci and father, who accompanied him. https://t.co/Z78SjIjXXH — Trident Team (@trident_team) July 8, 2018