Also, Russell was immediately talking politics, influencing the stewards. I thought this was not allowed anymore?
Why did they wait 22 seconds, and why does it matter. In situations like this, the double yellow should be retroactively applied to the moment the car was in the barriers. You should not be encouraged to try and squeeze through.
It will be a huge kick in the nuts if Antonelli somehow finishes ahead of Russell on pure pace tomorrow. That's a serious upshot for Kimi's psychological battle. I mean it hasn't gotten ugly yet... but it will. Just a matter of time.
I think the argument probably is it should have been a double yellow.
But by the rules George did nothing wrong.
Think when Anthony showed the striped yellows in the in lap it looked clear and George was okay by the rules
From f1:
"Single waved Yellow flag:
Drivers need to reduce their speed, cannot overtake and must be prepared to change direction, due to a hazard beside or partly on the track. It must be evident that a driver has reduced their speed during the relevant sector(s)."
We can argue Russell was never prepared to change direction due to a hazard as his lifting was insignificant.
I think the argument probably is it should have been a double yellow.
But by the rules George did nothing wrong.
Think when Anthony showed the striped yellows in the in lap it looked clear and George was okay by the rules
From f1:
"Single waved Yellow flag:
Drivers need to reduce their speed, cannot overtake and must be prepared to change direction, due to a hazard beside or partly on the track. It must be evident that a driver has reduced their speed during the relevant sector(s)."
We can argue Russell was never prepared to change direction due to a hazard as his lifting was insignificant.
Maybe but I think its very consistent with how the rule has been enforced.
I think as they said on the broadcast high speed corner car in the wall normally brings out a double yellow or even a red flag.
It was the assumption that it was a double yellow I think once it was single it was fine the replay showed he lifted pretty early. If it was super dangerous a car stopped in the middle of the track I'd imagine it would be red flagged.
For what it is with, Russell’s minisectors in the lap were:
Yellow-green-green-purple-green in S1,
Green-Green-Green-Purple-Green-Yellow-Green in S2,
Purple-Purple-(reaches Verstappen)-yellow-yellow-yellow-purple-yellow-yellow.
It feels like quite a slowdown.
Brilliant, thanks! I've been wondering for a while, is there somewhere these can be viewed online? Or did you grab it from the F1tv timing?
I'm not sure what our mod just posted there, what he was trying to defend...
google search - GR pole lap S3 time - 20.042
Kimi best sector time - 19.998
so, 0.05sec worth of lift - is that really OK by you? I mean - seriously?
suppose GR saw VER going off, saw the yellow flag, thought - this is VER going off into barriers, I'll be past by the time he hits them, this doesn't concern me - just to crash into some semi stationary car on the exit of the corner
they are still human, he can't see 2 places at once, yellow flag, even single one, is a no joke scenario, but this precedent right here makes it so, I really hope they at FIA pull their heads out of Toto back side and do the right thing
and this is no hate on Mercedes, Toto or GR, this is about yellow flag situation and blatant ignoring of rules because of the show element of this spectacle that used to be a serious sport
I still don't understand why a driver would throw the car into a corner knowing fully well that his car doesn't have the grip to hold on. It's unfortunate that the FIA doesn't want to implement the qualy crash rules they have in the junior formulae in F1. A driver shouldn't be able to hold on to his quickest qualy time if he ruins everyone else's lap with a completely avoidable crash.
This is what qualifying is meant to be and always has been. Banker lap for risk management and maximum attack on the final shot.
If you don't want to see drivers pushing the limit you can stick to junior formula.
The Race understands this was a consequence of how race control viewed the incident and the part of the track it took place at.
The crash initially triggered an immediate local single yellow from the marshal at the post, alerting race control to the situation.
The automatic lap deletions mean significant competitive implications to double waved yellow flags, and there was a desire not to introduce them unnecessarily.
Based on the size of the run-off area, the lack of marshals attending to the car in that moment and the fact the car was not visibly damaged beyond restarting, race control elected to wait and see if Verstappen could get going again and return to the pits.
I am starting to believe that these people in race control are seriously unwell. Their logic is the complete opposite of what any rational human being with a safety mindset would think in that scenario. They wait to show double yellows to see if the car can move away on its own, but it's exactly during that time of uncertainty that the double yellows need te be out to protect the driver. You only remove the double yellow if and when the driver can move the car away under its own power. Just baffling from these clowns in race control, putting the show first and safety last.
I'm not sure what our mod just posted there, what he was trying to defend...
google search - GR pole lap S3 time - 20.042
Kimi best sector time - 19.998
so, 0.05sec worth of lift - is that really OK by you? I mean - seriously?
suppose GR saw VER going off, saw the yellow flag, thought - this is VER going off into barriers, I'll be past by the time he hits them, this doesn't concern me - just to crash into some semi stationary car on the exit of the corner
they are still human, he can't see 2 places at once, yellow flag, even single one, is a no joke scenario, but this precedent right here makes it so, I really hope they at FIA pull their heads out of Toto back side and do the right thing
and this is no hate on Mercedes, Toto or GR, this is about yellow flag situation and blatant ignoring of rules because of the show element of this spectacle that used to be a serious sport
There is no precedent set, Russell did what basically any other driver would have done in this situation, in fact I would not be surprised if others would have lifted even less. Rosberg in Hungary 2016 lifted only for 30m in a double yellow zone and still got to keep pole. Verstappen also didn't slow down much in a double yellow zone last year in Mexico:https://www.racefans.net/2025/10/27/tha ... low-flags/
I'm not sure what our mod just posted there, what he was trying to defend...
google search - GR pole lap S3 time - 20.042
Kimi best sector time - 19.998
so, 0.05sec worth of lift - is that really OK by you? I mean - seriously?
not that it makes much of a difference, but his pole lap S3 was 20.069. 20,042 was from the lap before.
But yes, going by the telemetry on GP Tempo, half a tenth time loss is probably more or less accurate. Hard to say if he potentially gained time again by being able to use that energy later on.
