Max Verstappen has arrived for his meeting with the stewards ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, over an alleged yellow flag breach in qualifying. Verstappen has been summoned for allegedly failing to slow for double waved yellow flags on the main straight as he completed his final flying lap in Q3, with those flags being shown to cover the stranded AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, after the Frenchman suffered a tyre failure. Rules regarding double waved yellows have recently been made stricter , with lap times set in practice and qualifying automatically deleted. However, there was confusion over whether yellow flag conditions were actually in effect at the time that the drivers running behind Gasly completed their laps. Verstappen's meeting with the stewards began at 13:00 local time (10:00 UK time), with Sainz and Bottas due to follow at 13:30 and 13:45 respectively.
What's the likely outcome?
The most likely outcome, if the drivers are found guilty, is for the stewards to hand out grid penalties. Using several recent examples , Verstappen appears to be facing a slightly more severe five-place grid drop, while Bottas and Sainz are likely to be docked three places. Ironically, the driver who would benefit most from such a development is Gasly, who sparked the chaos in the first place. He could feasibly climb from fourth to second and join Hamilton on the front row of the grid. However, should the stewards find that the message of yellow flags wasn't conveyed accurately to the drivers, they may opt to hand out a reprimand to each driver, with or without penalty points.
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