Bortoleto avoids penalty as stewards give him “benefit of the doubt”

Gabriel Bortoleto avoided a penalty after the stewards investigated the Sauber driver for potentially overtaking under yellow flags.

After studying replays of the incident the stewards ruled there was insufficient evidence to conclude Bortoleto had broken the rules when he overtook Fernando Alonso during the second practice session. They therefore determined he should be given the benefit of the doubt.

The incident happened after Isack Hadjar spun at the exit of Tamburello towards the end of the session. The Racing Bulls driver became stuck on the outside of turn four.

Alonso arrived at the scene with Bortoleto behind him. The Sauber driver overtook Alonso after they passed Hadjar.

Moments later the session was red-flagged so marshals could recover the stranded car. “I overtook Fernando before the red flag when I saw the green,” Bortoleto told his race engineer. Alonso, who is Bortoleto’s manager, appeared not to comment on the incident.

The stewards examined video and other data from the incident and found they could not judge whether Bortoleto had seen green flags at that point on the track. Between turns four and five there are a series of light panels and marshal posts which are used to issue flag warnings to the drivers.

“Prior to the overtake, the section of the track near turn four was under double yellow flags because of an incident on the track. At the time of the overtake, green flags were clearly shown at marshal post 4.3 and the light panel ahead of that post.

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“However, based on the video and other evidence available, it was unclear if marshal post 4.2 was also showing green flags when the overtake happened. The driver had passed marshal post 4.2 when he overtook car 14.”

The post is not visible from Bortoleto’s forward-facing onboard camera and Alonso’s onboard camera was facing backwards.

“The driver insisted that he saw green flags at both marshal posts (i.e. 4.2 and 4.3) and the light panel when he decided to overtake,” the stewards continued.

“As we had no available evidence that clearly contradicted his statements, we could not establish that a breach had been committed. We therefore gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided that no further action [should] be taken.”

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