Verstappen and Hamilton escape grid penalties in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — No further action has been taken against drivers who were investigated for impeding other cars in the pit lane during qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, George Russell and Fernando Alonso were all under investigation for blocking the exit from the pit lane as they slowed to a stop in order to create a gap to the car in front of them in leaving the stands.

The problem occurred in a number of recent races after FIA race director Niels Wittich began imposing a minimum lap time between lines SC2 and SC1 (lines on the track after the exit from the pit lane and before entering the pit lane) for the laps during qualifying.

The idea of ​​the minimum lap time was to prevent drivers from moving slowly into the last sector of the lap during their exit lap in order to create a gap to the car in front of them. The problem was that a slow car could be dangerous if another driver came into the same part of the circuit on a flying lap.

The stewards investigated the three drivers in Mexico and determined that their slow exits from the pit lane, in which several cars were forced to queue behind, were an unfortunate but ultimately unavoidable side effect of the minimum lap time and preferable to slow cars in the race. final sector.

“The stewards consider that all of the incidents occurred as a direct consequence of the implementation of the minimum lap time between SC2 and SC1 which is designed (rightly, in our opinion) to prevent dangerous rollbacks of the cars on the circuit during qualifying,” the stewards said in a statement.

“We note that there are contrary requirements for drivers in that they must meet the minimum time, they attempt to create manageable gaps to the cars in front of them, but they must also avoid stopping unnecessarily at the exiting the pits or driving unnecessarily slowly.

“All parties, including the stewards, strongly believe that it is better to have the potential for cars to roll back into the pit lane or exiting the pits, rather than the potentially dangerous situation of large differences in speed. speed on the track.

“We consider that, overall, all drivers involved in these incidents were acting in good faith and with safety as a priority. We also recognize that race management took the correct approach in applying the minimum lap time. It is desirable that a better solution be found for pit exit, but at this stage what that solution would be is unknown.

The move means all three drivers will retain their grid positions, with Verstappen set to start in third place behind the two Ferraris on the front row of the grid.

Lewis Hamilton, who qualified sixth, was also cleared of any wrongdoing in a separate incident in which he allegedly drove too fast under yellow flags at Turn 3 during Q1.

The on-board video clearly shows that no lights or flags are displayed at car 44 on the straight of turn 1, then a green light appears as it enters turn 2, which is followed by 2 pulses of a yellow light then moments later the light panel is empty,” the stewards said.

“The driver was slightly slower in the mini-sector than on his previous push lap. Our determination is that there was no breach of the regulations.”

Logan Sargeant received a ten-place penalty for passing Yuki Tsunoda under yellow flags, but still had to start from the last pace. He also received two points on his F1 superlicence, taking his total to six over a rolling 12 month period. More than 12 points in 12 months results in a racing ban.

“The driver of car 2 [Sargeant] said he overtook car 22 [Tsunoda] because he appeared to be moving slowly and also because he saw the green sign in front of him,” said a statement from the stewards. “The stewards, however, determined that this was a violation of the regulations.

“The fact that a driver can see a green sign or flag in front of him does not mean that overtaking can take place in what is still a yellow flag zone. Overtaking can only take place after passing sign or green flag. It was also noted that he did not reduce speed sufficiently.”