Formula 1 race director Rui Marques’s decision not to neutralise the Qatar Grand Prix to allow a piece of debris to be removed prompted some criticism.
Not least from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, whose driver Lando Norris was penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags which were shown when Alexander Albon’s Williams shed its right-hand wing mirror approaching turn one.
Norris was handed a rare, 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to lift in under a double waved yellow flags.
Why, asked Stella, were the yellow flags displayed then withdrawn before the mirror had been collected? The debris was later hit by Valtteri Bottas’s Sauber, and soon afterwards two drivers sustained punctures, potentially as a consequence.
The situation began to unfold on lap 29 when Albon’s mirror suddenly fell off as he passed by the exit of the pit lane, and came to a rest on the circuit. Just under 30 seconds later, race leader Max Verstappen crossed the timing line to begin lap 30.
As Verstappen approached the debris, trackside marshals were waving double yellow flags, but the LED marshal boards were not yet illuminated. Verstappen lifted entirely off the throttle in reaction to the flags as he passed the scene.
Behind the Red Bull driver, Norris had just lapped Bottas, which allowed him to use his DRS along the pit straight. At the time, Norris was conversing with race engineer Will Joseph on his radio. Like Verstappen, Norris passed by the double waved yellows, but unlike his rival he did not lift.
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As Norris passed by, the LED marshal boards came on to warn for the debris, triggering the yellow flag zone on the FIA’s race control living timing system. Norris had gained eight tenths of a second to Verstappen from the exit of the final corner to the exit of turn two, prompting Verstappen to immediately ask race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to “check if he lifted for the yellow.”
The yellow flag was removed from race control’s system, but a single yellow marshal board remained as Verstappen passed by on lap 31. The mirror remained on circuit at the start of lap 32, with Verstappen being told that the “track is clear”. However, the marshals board continued to show a yellow flag.
At the start of lap 33, the marshal board had been turned off, indicating the track was all clear. However, the debris…
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