Max Verstappen escapes penalty and keeps Singapore sprint pole after Lewis Hamilton incident

Max Verstappen has avoided a penalty and will keep his pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race. 

Four-time world champion Verstappen was cleared despite passing Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags deployed for debris after Sergio Perez hit the Turn 5 barriers in SQ1. 

Verstappen caught and passed Hamilton between Turn 7 and Turn 8, where single-waved yellow flags were being waved following Perez’s incident. 

The Dutchman was warned by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that he was “in yellows” before he was heard radioing in to his Red Bull team to say: “I think I have to abort… I’ll let Lewis by again.

“I think I passed him before the yellow, but I just wanted to be safe.” 

Explaining their decision after the investigation, the stewards said: "As Car 3 was exiting turn 7 on a push lap, a single yellow flag was displayed. 

"Car 44 was ahead of Car 3 and had been warned of Car 3’s approach. The Driver of Car 44 said that after exiting turn 7, he slowed and moved to the right to ensure he was off the racing line. Car 3 overtook Car 44 prior to turn 8 while both cars were still in the yellow flag sector. Car 3 then abandoned the push lap.

"The Driver of Car 3 explained that he was on throttle exiting turn 7 and then saw the yellow flag and lifted. This was confirmed by telemetry. Within approximately 40 metres of entering the yellow flag sector, the Driver of Car 3 had lifted fully off throttle. 

"The Driver of Car 44 was braking and had reduced speed to less than 60km/h at the point Car 3 overtook. Because Car 3 was on a push lap and was on throttle out of turn 7 and Car 44 had slowed, the speed differential at the point of the overlap was significant despite the fact that the Driver of Car 3 had also started braking. 

"The Stewards were satisfied that the Driver of Car 3 reacted appropriately to the yellow flag by lifting off throttle and reducing speed. The speed of Car 3 at the overtake point was some 70km/h less than Car 3’s speed on another push lap in the same session.

"The Driver of Car 3 explained that to have avoided the overtake would have required him to have braked very heavily and he considered to have done so would have potentially created an unsafe situation.

"The Stewards determined that the Driver of Car 3 breached the yellow flag regulation by overtaking Car 44. However, the Stewards were satisfied that the overtake was an unfortunate consequence of the significant closing speed differential and, in these circumstances, determined not to impose a penalty."