Alexander Albon was denied the chance to participate in Q2 when the stewards issued a penalty to rival Nico Hulkenberg too late in qualifying.
The stewards explained the Sauber driver’s infringement was only reported to them after Q2 had begun.
Hulkenberg originally beat Albon to the final place in Q2 by less than a tenth of a second. He went on to participate in Q2, where he was eliminated.
However the stewards later decided Hulkenberg exceeded track limits at turn 11 during his final flying lap in Q1. They therefore deleted that time, which meant he should not have reached Q2, and therefore all his subsequent lap times were struck.
The Sauber driver told his race engineer Steven Petrik during Q1 he had made a mistake at that point on the lap. “I fucked up turn 11,” he admitted.
The stewards later ruled Hulkenberg “clearly exceeded track limits in turn 11.”
“However this was not reported to the stewards until Q2 had commenced. Car 27’s [Hulkenberg’s] time recorded on the lap that track limits were exceeded, was sufficient to place it in Q2. Hence at the time the Stewards were informed that car 27 had breached the Race Director’s Event Notes and that its lap should have been deleted, it was already on track in Q2.”
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A similar situation occured at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2022, when Sergio Perez was incorrectly allowed to participate in Q3, and Pierre Gasly was denied a chance to participate in the session. The stewards handled both situations the same way.
“As this is an unusual situation, the stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.9.2.a of the FIA International Sporting Code.”
Albon said his final lap in Q1 should have been quicker anyway, due to a delay in leaving his garage.
“We need to understand what went on,” he said. “We were supposed to go out on track with four minutes to go but we ended up getting stuck in that pit exit traffic jam.
“We were there for a few minutes, lost about 20-25 degrees of tyre temperature and then we were fighting to make the flag. So we had to push around, overtook a few cars, started the lap and the tyres were cold.
“So more procedural [matters] I think that we just need to tidy up for the rest of the year. We’re not normally bad at these kind of things but we need to review it and not have it happen again for the next time.”
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This article will be updated
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