Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda are under investigation for allegedly driving too slowly during sprint race qualifying, after the stewards noted 40 potential incidents involving 17 drivers.
Every driver in the field bar Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg were identified as having exceeded the maximum time between the two Safety Car lines during the session. The stewards ruled no penalty should be applied in 38 cases, including one each for Perez and Tsunoda.However the stewards summoned the drivers to answer their questions over one further incident each. Perez’s investigation concerns his slow lap before his final attempt to set a lap time, in which he and Charles Leclerc encountered each other on the track.
Drivers must not take more than 100 seconds to pass between the second Safety Car line, at the pit lane exit, and the first, and the pit lane entrance. Perez’s entire tour of the track prior to his final flying lap took over 144 seconds and was the slowest such lap of the session.
The stewards’ documents confirmed Perez and Tsunoda were cleared of exceeding the time limit at 20:37:15 and 20:41:46 respectively, and are under investigation for incidents at 20:41 and 20:38 respectively. They have been summoned to meet the stewards on Saturday before the sprint race.
The rule imposing a minimum time on drivers between the Safety Car lines has been imposed since the second half of last season. The stewards regularly note drivers fail to comply with it, but usually clear them on the grounds that “the drivers took appropriate actions to not impede other drivers, and where required slowed down significantly to allow other drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track.” This was the case for the 38 incidents cleared during today’s session.
Drivers noted for driving unnecessarily slowly
| Car | Driver | Team | Cleared | Under investigation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 3 | 0 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 2 | 0 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 2 | 0 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 3 | 0 |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 2 | 0 |
| 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 4 | 0 |
| 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 1 | 0 |
| 30 | Liam Lawson | RB | 4 | 0 |
| 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | 2 | 0 |
| 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 3 | 0 |
| 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1 | 0 |
| 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 3 | 0 |
| 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 2 | 0 |
| 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 3 | 0 |
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Yes (@come-on-kubica)
29th November 2024, 21:27
Perez driving too slow…. hahaha ha. Even stewards are trying to investigate that now!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th November 2024, 23:10
Ahaha, was thinking the same: that’s no surprise, is it?
Btw, I’ve started recording every time perez gets eliminated in a quali session when he shouldn’t have in brazil and I already collected 3, with the commentators saying: that’s an absolute disater for sergio perez: I got the sprint quali only in brazil because red bull were victims of bad timing in quali (even verstappen got eliminated there), and then I got vegas quali and qatar sprint quali, as in the commentators keep being shocked, the red bull team bosses and perez keep being shocked, but I’m not!
SPArtacus
30th November 2024, 5:13
I instantly guffawed with the same thought.
Raphael
29th November 2024, 22:10
I find it wrong for the stewards to call this out, he is just struggling, the stewards should not point that out.
Riker (@corsair)
29th November 2024, 22:46
They really need to just have professional stewards, just like professional referees and umpires, and pay them properly. They clearly have a lot to deal with.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
29th November 2024, 22:59
Amazing it’s taken them this long to investigate why Perez is so slow!