09/04/2022
NEWS STORY
The Melbourne stewards opt to take no further action following a number of alleged misdemeanours during today's qualifying session.
Alleged to have failed to respect single yellow flags, the stewards found that as Sergio Perez approached Turn 11, a single yellow flag was displayed for a car in the escape road.
The Mexican was warned by his team on the radio at the same time the signals were displayed at the corner.
Compared to his previous lap, he lifted 70 metres earlier, braked 50 metre earlier, and carried 14kph less speed into the corner.
As a result of these actions, the stewards concluded that the Red Bull driver had acted appropriately to the situation and decided to take no further action.
Alleged to have driven unnecessarily slowly on an in lap during the session. the stewards found that Charles Leclerc started a lap that was intended to be a cool down lap, not an in lap, which would not be subject to the minimum time restriction of the regulation.
Part way through the lap, the decision was made to come in. During the lap there was heavy traffic and the Ferrari driver took effort to ensure that he did not impede other drivers on push laps.
These efforts significantly slowed his lap time and as a result, the minimum time was breached.
However, the Stewards accepted the driver’s rationale for his actions, finding that he acted reasonably under the circumstances and, therefore, decided to take no further action.
Similarly, in the case of Guanyu Zhou who was also alleged to have driven unnecessarily slowly on an in lap, the stewards found that during the lap there was heavy traffic and the Alfa Romeo driver took every effort to ensure that he did not impede other drivers on push laps.
These efforts slowed his lap time and as a result, the minimum time was slightly breached.
The stewards having accepted the Chinese driver’s rationale for his actions found that he acted reasonably under the circumstances and, therefore opted to take no further action.
In the case of Yuki Tsunoda, who was similarly alleged to have driven unnecessarily slowly on an in lap, the stewards found that the AlphaTauri driver drove a slow in lap at the end of the session without other traffic that impacted his driving.
In this case, the required minimum lap time was breached without good or apparent reason, consequently the stewards reprimanded him for breaching the regulation.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Melbourne, here.