Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda are under investigation for allegedly driving too slowly during sprint race qualifying, after the stewards noted 40 potential incidents involving 17 drivers.
Every driver in the field bar Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg were identified as having exceeded the maximum time between the two Safety Car lines during the session. The stewards ruled no penalty should be applied in 38 cases, including one each for Perez and Tsunoda.
However the stewards summoned the drivers to answer their questions over one further incident each. Perez’s investigation concerns his slow lap before his final attempt to set a lap time, in which he and Charles Leclerc encountered each other on the track.
Drivers must not take more than 100 seconds to pass between the second Safety Car line, at the pit lane exit, and the first, and the pit lane entrance. Perez’s entire tour of the track prior to his final flying lap took over 144 seconds and was the slowest such lap of the session.
The stewards’ documents confirmed Perez and Tsunoda were cleared of exceeding the time limit at 20:37:15 and 20:41:46 respectively, and are under investigation for incidents at 20:41 and 20:38 respectively. They have been summoned to meet the stewards on Saturday before the sprint race.
The rule imposing a minimum time on drivers between the Safety Car lines has been imposed since the second half of last season. The stewards regularly note drivers fail to comply with it, but usually clear them on the grounds that “the drivers took appropriate actions to not impede other drivers, and where required slowed down significantly to allow other drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track.” This was the case for the 38 incidents cleared during today’s session.
Drivers noted for driving unnecessarily slowly
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