Drivers must abandon laps under double yellows

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Drivers must now abandon qualifying laps if they encounter double waved yellow flags, after clarification from the FIA.

The topic was raised at the Hungarian Grand Prix this year, when Nico Rosberg managed to take pole position despite encountering double waved yellow flags on his quickest lap. Rosberg was not penalised as the stewards decided he lifted sufficiently.

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Sergio Perez was then hit with a grid penalty for not slowing sufficiently for double waved yellows after Romain Grosjean crashed during Q2 at the Singapore Grand Prix. Force India argued the Mexican slowed more significantly than Rosberg had in Hungary.

The FIA have now clarified what it expects from drivers in such a situation in future, explaining laps should be abandoned.

"Any driver passing through a double waved yellow marshalling sector must reduce speed significantly and be prepared to change direction or stop," FIA race director Charlie Whiting's event notes read.

"In order for the stewards to be satisfied that any such driver has complied with these requirements it must be clear that he has not attempted to set a meaningful lap time, for practical purposes this means the driver should abandon the lap (this does not necessarily mean he has to pit as the track could well be clear the following lap)."

Perez was also penalised for overtaking a slow-moving Esteban Gutierrez later on the same lap in Singapore in a yellow flag sector, believing the Haas had moved over to let him through. The FIA has also clarified when drivers can overtake in such situations under single yellow flags.

"Drivers should reduce their speed and be prepared to change direction. It must be clear that a driver has reduced speed and, in order for this to be clear, a driver would be expected to have braked earlier and/or discernibly reduced speed in the relevant marshalling sector.

"Drivers should not overtake any car in a single waved yellow marshalling sector unless it is clear that a car is slowing with a completely obvious problem, e.g. obvious accident damage or a deflated tyre."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.