Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel are amongst the drivers who will face the stewards after Friday's first practice session in Australia. Following the opening hour of track time at Albert Park, several summons documents were issued to call drivers before the stewards for various transgressions. Sainz, who finished as the fastest driver in FP1, has been summoned for an alleged blocking incident. Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu had been on a flying lap early in the session when he encountered the Spaniard in the final sector of the lap, forcing him to back off through the final two corners.
Vettel also off to see the stewards
Vettel, who broke down on track with 20 minutes of the session remaining due to an apparent engine issue, will also face the stewards. Having climbed out of his car at the side of the track and blasted his engine bay with a fire extinguisher, Vettel assumed command of a trackside scooter and drove it back to the pits by taking to the circuit. This met with appreciation from the crowd as he smiled and waved, with the fans cheering his low-speed lap back to his garage. But the stewards have summoned him for "entering the track without permission", with the Sporting Regulations outlining that, for the time period including the first practice session, "no one is allowed on the track, the pit entry or the pit exit". The exceptions to this rule are "marshals, or other authorised personnel, in the execution of their duty", as well as "drivers when driving or on foot, having first received permission to do so from a marshal".
Other summons for blocking
Both Aston Martin drivers will have visited the stewards by the time the second practice session starts, as Lance Stroll has also been called up. The Canadian driver has been summoned for allegedly impeding Haas' Kevin Magnussen at Turn 3 midway through the hour-long session, with Magnussen summoned to give his side of the story.
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