Gabriel Bortoleto’s Baku penalty drops Audi driver from P13 to last

Bortoleto penalised after yellow-flag overtake in Baku

Gabriel Bortoleto has been handed a 10-second time penalty after stewards ruled that the Audi driver overtook Sergio Perez under waved yellow flags during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Bortoleto finished the 51-lap race in 13th place on the road, but the sanction dropped him to 15th and last of the classified runners. His Audi team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th as the team failed to challenge for points.

Incident followed first Safety Car restart

The incident occurred between Turns 6 and 7 on the first lap after the first Safety Car restart. Yellow flags and physical “SC” boards were being displayed in the sector after a collision at Turn 1 involving Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto and Lando Norris.

The stewards acknowledged that Bortoleto initially reacted to the yellow flags, but noted that he did not see a corresponding electronic warning or receive a Safety Car indication on his steering wheel. He was also told by Audi that the Safety Car had not been deployed.

That meant the stewards did not classify the move as an overtake under Safety Car conditions. However, they still found that Bortoleto had passed another car while a yellow flag was present.

“A waved Yellow Flag is an instruction in its own right and must be respected irrespective of any accompanying signal,” the stewards said.

The ruling added that a driver cannot disregard a yellow flag based on their own assessment of why it was shown or whether it should have been displayed.