Lando Norris has been handed a 5-place grid penalty for failing to respect the yellow flags during Q1 today.

The Istanbul stewards, having heard from the McLaren driver, his team representative and having reviewed video, radio, telemetry and marshalling system evidence, found that Norris approached turn 8 which was under double waved yellow flags for Nicolas Latifi.

The telemetry showed that Norris slowed in the sector and resumed speed after the incident. He then asked his team if he should abort the lap, but was told to stay out because of the rapidly changing track conditions.

Norris completed the lap, which turned out to be his fastest lap of Q1.

While the stewards acknowledged that Norris was not attempting to set a quick lap time, due to the changing track conditions he nevertheless did so and thereby breached the referenced regulations.

As a result he drops 5 grid places and receives 3 penalty points, bringing his 12-month total up to 5.

Fans wondering why Norris is penalised yet no further action was taken against pole-winner, Lance Stroll even though the pair appeared to commit similar offences, should be aware that while a single yellow flag was shown in response to Perez' spin, Latifi's off resulted in double yellows.

The rules state that double-waved yellow flags mean: "Reduce your speed significantly, do not overtake, and be prepared to change direction or stop. There is a hazard wholly or partly blocking the track and/or marshals working on or beside the track.

"During free practice and qualifying, it must be evident that a driver has not attempted to set a meaningful lap time". It then clarifies that "this means the driver should abandon the lap", although there is no requirement to pit."

A question of regulatory semantics.

Check out our Saturday gallery from Istanbul, here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Mad Matt, 15/11/2020 9:56

"It does seem inappropriate given that at some stages people were knocking seconds off their lap times so you could easily back off a lot and still improve your overall lap time."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Burton, 14/11/2020 21:14

"So he gets a harsher penalty than his teammate, who clearly blocked another driver, just because the track conditions improved. Lovely."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Norris hit with grid penalty

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page