Doc 68 - Infringement - Car 5 - Overtaking under yellow flags

Decision

• Penalty: 10 second time penalty
• Fact: Overtaking under yellow flags
• Infringement: Breach of Appendix H, Article 2.5.5 b) of the International Sporting Code

Investigation & Reasoning

• Incident: Occurred between Turns 6 and 7 during the first lap after the race restart.
• Context: Marshal posts displayed physical SC boards along with waved Yellow Flags, but the Safety Car had not actually been deployed by Race Control.
• Driver's Defense: Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5) reacted to the SC boards and yellow flags. Seeing no electronic indication or steering wheel warning, and being told by his team that the SC was not deployed, he overtook PER to avoid losing position.
• Stewards' Finding:

  While conflicting information (erroneous SC boards) contributed to the confusion, a waved Yellow Flag is an independent instruction that must be respected regardless of accompanying signals.

  • Bortoleto admitted to seeing the yellow flags but dismissed them, assuming they were part of the SC procedure.
  • The Stewards reject this interpretation; drivers cannot disregard yellow flags based on their own assessment.
  • Result: Standard penalty for overtaking under a single yellow flag is applied.