Penalty in Singapore? Max Verstappen breathes a sigh of relief – he can keep his sprint pole!

Bahrain Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen can breathe a sigh of relief: he will be able to start the Singapore Sprint (10 October, 11.00 European time) from pole position, as seemed certain following his fastest time in the Sprint qualifying session.

But nothing was certain, as the race stewards – Felix Holter (Germany), Matthew Selley (Australia), Pedro Lamy (Portugal) and Paul Ng (Singapore) – called Verstappen in for a chat after qualifying.

This followed a yellow flag caused by Sergio Pérez’s spin in the Cadillac. Ferrari ace Lewis Hamilton immediately reported Verstappen: “He overtook me under yellow.” But Max on the radio: “I let Lewis past; that was before the yellow flag, but I wanted to be sure.”

Overnight in Singapore, the race stewards came to the conclusion that this did not warrant a penalty, and Max Verstappen was cleared.

They justified their ruling as follows: “As car number 3 (Max Verstappen) emerged from Turn 7 on a fast lap, a single yellow flag was displayed. Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton) was ahead of car 3 and had been warned of its approach. The driver of car 44 stated that, after exiting Turn 7, he braked and swerved to the right to ensure he was off the ideal line.”

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“Car 3 then overtook Car 44 before Turn 8, whilst both cars were still within the yellow-flag zone. Car 3 abandoned its fast lap shortly afterwards. The driver of Car 3 stated that he had accelerated whilst exiting Turn 7, but then spotted the yellow flag and lifted off the throttle for that reason. This was confirmed by data from his racing car.”

“Within approximately 40 metres of entering the yellow-flag sector, the driver of Car 3 had completely lifted off the throttle. The driver of Car 44 braked and had reduced his speed to below 60 km/h at the time of Car 3’s overtaking manoeuvre.”

“As Car 3 was, as mentioned, on a fast lap and was still accelerating out of Turn 7, whilst Car 44 had already braked by that point, the difference in speed at the point of overlap was significant, even though the driver of Car 3 had now also begun to brake.»

“The race stewards are of the opinion that the driver of Car 3 reacted appropriately to the yellow flag by lifting off the throttle and reducing his speed considerably. This was approximately 70 km/h below his normal speed at that point.”

“The driver of Car 3 further explained that, in order to avoid the overtaking manoeuvre, he would have had to brake very hard, and he believed that this might have led to an unsafe situation.”

“The Race Commissioners note that the driver of Car 3 breached the yellow flag regulations by overtaking Car 44. However, the race stewards also consider that the overtaking manoeuvre was an unfortunate consequence of the significant difference in speed. They have therefore decided not to impose a penalty in these circumstances.”