Pierre Gasly has been disqualified from today's qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for exceeding the instantaneous fuel mass flow limit.

The stewards heard from Alpine team representatives including the Sporting Director and the engineer involved, and the FIA Technical Delegate along with the FIA Engineers managing the measurements and data from the car.

Gasly was summoned in order to give him the opportunity to provide a defence, but he did not attend the hearing.

The Technical Delegate reported that Gasly's car exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2.

The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion. The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff.

That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor who demonstrated to the stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment.

Thus, they argued, should be taken into mitigation. They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a beach.

The usual penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is disqualification and the sStewards noted that Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code states "If an Automobile is found not to comply with the applicable technical regulations, it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained." In addition to the Code this has long been the position of the International Court of Appeal.

Consequently, the stewards applied the usual penalty and disqualified the car and driver from the classification of qualifying. however, Gasly was given permission to start the race, albeit from the back of the grid.

Elsewhere, George Russell was given a reprimand for failing to slow under yellow flags in a similar incident to Charles Leclerc in FP3, albeit with some important differences.

Carlos Sainz ran into the run-off at Turn 2 and Russell - the next car on track - was fully committed to his braking, and unlike Leclerc, was already turning into the corner, when the yellow flag was displayed on the far right of the runoff.

The stewards considered that there was no reasonable way for Russell to have seen that flag and even if he had, he could not have changed his braking. Once he rounded the corner, he accelerated normally. Unlike Leclerc, however, the illuminated green light panel between turn 2 and turn 3, was a significant distance further down the track and harder to see at the point of acceleration than in the case of Leclerc. Ultimately, Russell did see the green.

The Mercedes driver did not get the benefit of the DRS in that zone because it was automatically switched off, slowing his lap.

The stewards pointed out in the Leclerc decision many mitigating factors. In this case, the stewards believed there was further mitigation. However, it is a matter of safety that the drivers understand that when they have seen a car in a run-off, and the green light indicates that they are inside of a yellow sector and that some indication, such as a lift or at least limited acceleration, acknowledging that other issues can occur within a yellow zone.

Thus, in this limited set of circumstances, in particular that the yellow flag could not have been seen, the stewards issued a reprimand rather than a more serious penalty.

The stewards subsequently recommended that this matter be clarified in the next drivers' meeting and noted that these penalties should not represent a binding precedent.

Finally, Williams was fined €5,000 after Alex Albon was released from the garage with the engine cooling fan still attached.

The driver stopped at the first opportunity, at the pit exit, and subsequently removed the fan and threw it overboard where it was subsequently retrieved by a marshal. Albon then drove away and entered the pits without setting an additional time.

The general expectation when released in an unsafe condition is to simply stop at the next safe location. Throwing parts overboard, requiring a marshal to retrieve them is not normal. However, in this case the actions of the team and driver prevented the qualifying runs of any other driver from being affected, as a yellow flag would have had to be shown if the car had remained where it was, or had driven to a run-off, and in this unique case, throwing the part overboard avoided the yellow flag. This turned out to be "least worst option".

Had any of these actions affected other competitors, or created a further unsafe situation the stewards would have taken further action. However, in this case they imposed the usual penalty for a release in an unsafe condition.

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