Verstappen avoids penalty over yellow flag infringement

Max Verstappen has avoided a grid penalty for Saturday’s Sprint in Singapore after the pole winner was investigated by the stewards for allegedly breaching yellow flag regulations while passing Lewis Hamilton during Sprint qualifying.

The stewards’ decision document read: “As Car 3 [Verstappen] was exiting Turn 7 on a push lap, a single yellow flag was displayed. Car 44 [Hamilton] was ahead of Car 3 and had been warned of Car 3’s approach. The driver of Car 44 said that after exiting Turn 7, he slowed and moved to the right to ensure he was off the racing line. Car 3 overtook Car 44 prior to Turn 8 while both cars were still in the yellow flag sector. Car 3 then abandoned the push lap.

“The driver of Car 3 explained that he was on throttle exiting Turn 7 and then saw the yellow flag and lifted. This was confirmed by telemetry. Within approximately 40 meters of entering the yellow flag sector, the driver of Car 3 had lifted fully off throttle. The driver of Car 44 was braking and had reduced speed to less than 60km/h at the point Car 3 overtook.

“Because Car 3 was on a push lap and was on throttle out of Turn 7 and Car 44 had slowed, the speed differential at the point of the overlap was significant despite the fact that the driver of Car 3 had also started braking.

“The stewards were satisfied that the driver of Car 3 reacted appropriately to the yellow flag by lifting off throttle and reducing speed. The speed of Car 3 at the overtake point was some 70km/h less than Car 3’s speed on another push lap in the same session.

“The driver of Car 3 explained that to have avoided the overtake would have required him to have braked very heavily and he considered to have done so would have potentially created an unsafe situation."