28/07/2018
NEWS STORY
Following an incident during today's qualifying session, Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean were summoned by the Hungaroring stewards after it was alleged that the Red Bull driver impeded the Frenchman in the final moments of Q3.
The Stewards examined video and audio evidence of the incident and heard from Verstappen, Grosjean and team representatives.
Verstappen was on a fast lap but then caught Gasly early in the lap. He then aborted the lap.
Grosjean who was on a fast lap, was catching Verstappen. He was six seconds behind at Turn 11 and four seconds behind at Turn 13.
Verstappen was close to Gasly going into Turn 13 and at this point Gasly set up for his flying lap and Verstappen in turn slowed to get a gap. Grosjean caught Verstappen between Turn 13 and Turn 14 which impeded the Haas driver.
While Verstappen was given reasonable, if slightly delayed information by his team, the stewards took into account that with the very wet conditions, there was limited visibility ahead, and no visibility behind the drivers. The gaps between Gasly, Verstappen and Grosjean changed over a very short section of the track, and under the conditions the stewards determined that the impeding was not, as the rule states, "unnecessary impeding" and therefore take no further action.
Check out our Saturday gallery from the Hungaroring, here.