FIA stewards reach verdict for yellow flags summons ahead of Baku qualifying

The FIA stewards have confirmed a verdict for Nico Hulkenberg after he headed into qualifying in Baku under a cloud, as he was summoned for an alleged yellow flag infringement.

The Sauber driver visited the stewards after the qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, having been summoned for an alleged breach of the rules during third practice.

Nico Hulkenberg summoned in Azerbaijan

Hulkenberg visited the stewards shortly after the end of the qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The German, together with a Sauber representative, was called to the FIA stewards on the grounds of an alleged breach of Appendix H, Article 2.5.5 b) of the International Sporting Code.

This pertained to an incident in which he was alleged to have overtaken under yellow flag conditions at 13:33.

This came three minutes after the scheduled conclusion of the third practice session.

Hulkenberg finished in 12th place in the practice session, but was knocked out in Q1 after damaging his car in a crash during the first part of qualifying.

Carrying slightly too much speed into the Turn 4 corner, his last-minute attempt to abort the corner and take to the escape area just saw him slide into the barriers and lose his front wing.

But, in better news, he wasn’t given any sort of penalty for the alleged rules breach from FP3, as the stewards released their verdict after the session.

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 27 (Nico Hulkenberg), team representative, and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, and in-car video evidence,” read the verdict.

“[Lewis Hamilton ran off at Turn 1. A yellow flag was waved at Turn 1 as [Hulkenberg] approached.

“After the turn, [Hulkenberg] overtook [Hamilton], who was travelling at a significantly slower speed than [Hulkenberg], prior to the green light displayed between Turns 1 and 2.

“This all occurred after the chequered flag had been displayed.

[Hulkenberg] advised that he could not see the yellow flag because it was displayed after he began turning into the apex of Turn 1.

“He then could not see the green panel because it was obstructed by [Hamilton] in front, so he had no idea until he passed [Hamilton] that he was in a yellow flag area.”

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Explaining his qualifying session immediately after the chequered flag, Hulkenberg revealed that he had been enjoying the feeling of his Sauber during practice but front locking had plagued him through his short qualifying session.

“In Q1, I don’t know, I struggled with front locking a lot more than any other session, and that really made all the difference,” he said.

“I think, not one lap without any front locking somewhere. And it’s pretty costly around here. So, yeah, pretty annoying and frustrating.”

As for his moment in which he ended up in the barriers and damaged his front wing, triggering the red flag, Hulkenberg held his hands up for having not delivered at his best.

“When an incident like this happens, your plan gets thrown overboard,” he said.

“The timing is what it is, then these red flags, you need to make the most of it, but yeah, I just didn’t produce clean laps. I just didn’t deliver what I should.”

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