Is it possible that three drivers, namely Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, have all three violated a single and then double yellow flag regime? The question arises spontaneously, because if in Mexico in 2019 the Dutchman was almost proud at least judging by the declarations of not having slowed down – being penalized – in this case all three seem unrelated to any communication from the Race Direction during the final part of qualifying made uncertain by Pierre Gasly’s puncture at the penultimate corner. To begin, we report the messages of the Race Direction which highlight a double yellow flag interval with a decidedly short duration, seven seconds in total (the time is local in Qatar).
14:59:51 – Yellow sector 18
14:59:54 – Clear
15:00:00 – Chequered flag
15:00:02 – Yellow sector 20
15:00:03 – Drs Disabled
15:00:06 – Drs Enabled
15:00:06 – Clear
These are therefore the ‘notices’ sent by the Race Direction, at a time when the three drivers called up were still far from the sectors in question. Below we can see the telemetry created by Federico Albano which highlights how the only ones to slow down were Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, the latter ‘hit’ by the yellow flag just as he passed through the ‘offending’ sectors.
Tomorrow at 11 am – Italian time – Verstappen will see the stewards, as the Dutchman is accused of failing to comply with a double yellow flag. On the other hand, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas failed to respect a single yellow flag. No problems for Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon, who passed the straight before the stewards started waving – by mistake, it was said – first one and then two yellow flags. Analyzing the images it is clear that Carlos Sainz, Bottas and Verstappen passed close to a yellow flag, double in the case of the Dutchman. Verstappen also sees a bluish color in the light panel, which could also actually be the white that signals a slow car on the track. As reported on reddit.com, Fernando Alonso only received the radio communication from his engineer and listened to him by slowing. Lando Norris, like the Alpine Spaniard, received a message regarding yellow flag from the engineer via radio, who immediately corrected himself by communicating the green flag (and the chronology reported justifies this sudden change of course) and so he did not slow down. Alonso therefore raised his foot ‘on the floor’, Vettel in front of the illuminated panel, Norris, Ocon, Sainz, Bottas and Verstappen did not slow down. The last three, however, also ignored the yellow flag, which later became double.
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