Stroll pole at risk from stewards; Sainz gets penalty
Lance Stroll has another fight on his hands at Istanbul Park if he's to keep hold of his first-ever F1 pole position.
The Racing Point driver successfully fought off Max Verstappen in Saturday's Turkish Grand Prix qualifying to take the top spot by almost three tenths of a second in Q3.
But now Stroll has been summoned to appear before the FIA race stewards over a report that he did not respect yellow flags during the session - allegations that could see him suffer a grid penalty that would cost him his pole position.
The report states that Stroll did not slow down sufficiently on his pole position lap to sufficiently respect yellow flags that were being waved at turn 7.
It appears that the yellow flags were out because Stroll's team mate Sergio Perez had just spun off the track a few seconds earlier.
The team told Stroll of the incident over the team radio, but was also told: "That was a single yellow so keep pushing"
A number of other drivers have also been summoned to see the stewards this evening, including Lando Norris who is reported to have failed to slow down under yellow flags in Q1.
His McLaren team mate Carlos Sainz is the first driver to be confirmed as receiving a penalty, after being handed a three-place grid drop for impeding Perez.
"[Sainz] was exiting the pits as [Perez] passed through turn 1,” the stewards stated in their report. “[Perez] caught up to [Sainz] in turn 2 and 3 and was unnecessarily impeded ... at that point and through several subsequent turns.
“While extraordinary track conditions clearly impacted the situation, radio communications from the team clearly warned [Sainz] that [Perez] was behind him," they added.
As a result of the ruling, Sainz drops from his original 13th place on the grid and still start Sunday's race from 16th.
A similar verdict on Stroll would see the Canadian lose pole and line up in fourth place on the grid, with Verstappen taking over at the front.
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