At the end of the second part of qualifying, an unusual situation arose when Sergio Perez went off the track in corner eight, but this lap was not immediately canceled – and the driver advanced to the qualifying final. The stewards claim they simply didn’t have time to think about this incident as there were many more.
After qualifying, the rider and the team representative were called to the stewards. The team stated that going off track at the time did not give Sergio any advantage – and provided evidence to support this position. But the stewards decided this was not a matter of “gaining a lasting advantage”, but rather “going off the track without a valid excuse”, which is another part of the same rule in the section used in the qualifiers.
This situation, where a driver advances to the next part of qualifying and then turns out to have gone off track, has not happened recently, so the stewards considered it a new one.
The team stated that they were taking a risk and using resources to enter the qualifying final. The stewards have accepted this opinion, but if we look at the situation after the session, this is the case with all incidents.
Usually leaving the track is penalized by canceling the time of the relevant lap. The stewards made the same decision this time. However, bearing in mind that if this lap had been cancelled, the rider would not have qualified for the final of qualifying, the stewards decided that all laps completed by the rider in the final should be cancelled.
Participants can appeal within the specified period.
Source: F1 News
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