Verstappen gets five-place Qatar GP grid drop, Bottas three

Max Verstappen has been handed a five-place grid penalty for lightweight to respect double waved yellow flags in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, while Valtteri Bottas drops three places.

Pierre Gasly’s front wing failure at the end of Q3 left trash on the track at the penultimate corner, with the AlphaTauri suburbanite coming to a halt on the inside of the track on the pit straight. While race tenancy cleared yellow flags on two occasions, when Gasly stopped the marshals started waving flags despite the trackside light boards not stuff illuminated.

Bottas was the first suburbanite to pass the yellow flags and received a single yellow that he did not slow for, resulting in his three-place grid penalty. Carlos Sainz moreover faced the same situation and while he didn’t see the flag he slowed in response to Gasly, meaning the stewards cleared him of any infringement.

But when Verstappen approached, the marshals had upgraded the warning to double waved yellow flags — meaning be prepared to stop if required — and as the Red Bull suburbanite did not respond to the situation he was handed a five-place grid penalty.

Red Bull tried to oppose that as the race tenancy message had reverted to “track clear,”  it was unfair for Verstappen to be expected to react, but the stewards stated Red Bull did not inform him the track was well-spoken and that flags unchangingly have to be complied with.

The stewards moreover stated that the FIA International Sporting Code “places the onus of responsibility of complying with flag signals unmistakably on the driver, so notwithstanding the fact the team argued that the turning off of the yellow sector on the FIA marshalling system some 34 seconds prior to the suburbanite reaching the yellow flag, signified that it was ‘play on,’ it was the driver’s responsibility to take the towardly whoopee when inward what was a double yellow flag area.

“The suburbanite undisputed his sensation of the presence of Car 10 on the right side of the track. Having seen a disabled car, it is reasonable to expect, as was the specimen of the suburbanite of Car 55, that there was a potential danger and that a yellow flag situation probably existed and therefore to take the towardly whoopee (i.e. to reduce speed).”

As Bottas was first wideness the situation, his penalty was handed out first and therefore unromantic first, dropping him initially from third to sixth. With Verstappen then demoted from second to seventh, Bottas moves up to fifth place overdue Lewis Hamilton on pole position, Gasly in second, Fernando Alonso third and Lando Norris fourth.