FIA says 'unusual scenario' caused Tsunoda unlapping confusion

The FIA says the confusion surrounding Yuki Tsunoda not being allowed to unlap himself ahead of the final safety car restart in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix was due to a systems quirk specific to the Interlagos track.

Ahead of the final restart, with eleven laps to go, three cars should have theoretically been waved through to unlap themselves: the Williams cars of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi and Tsunoda's AlphaTauri.

However, only the first two were ordered to overtake the safety car, while Tsunoda remained engulfed in the pack, just ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

On the restart, Tsunoda fortunately pulled to the left on the main straight and out of the path of the field.

It later came to light that race control's automated system had been caught out by Tsunoda's pitstop during the race's neutralization.

"All of the systems functioned correctly and according to the regulations," a FIA spokesperson told the media after the race.

"The unusual situation arose as a result of the idiosyncrasies of the specific circuit and scenario."

After the safety car was deployed, Tsunoda was the first driver to cross Safety Car Line one.

On the following lap, he would have become the first driver to cross the SC1 line for a second time, indicating to the system that he was eligible to unlap himself.

But instead, Tsunoda entered the pit lane and was able to go faster than those cars that had stayed out, an event that registered in the system as the AlphaTauri charger having unlapped himself.

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"When he rejoined the circuit, the systems correctly indicated that he was again a lap down, however as he had already un-lapped himself once, he was not eligible to do so again when the Safety Car period was ending," stated the FIA's spokesperson.

"Race control checked this was correct with F1 Timing and they confirmed that only car six [Latifi] and car 23 [Albon] could un-lap themselves.

"While this is a very unusual scenario, there were no systems or procedural errors, it is one of those unpredictable scenarios that can happen and there are no immediate changes that need to be implemented."

The FIA's spokesperson added that the matter "will of course be discussed at future Sporting Advisory Committees as part of the normal review procedures".

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