Two cars in Q3 for Force India but big penalty for Pérez in Singapore

A solid performance from Nico Hülkenberg and a nice eighth place as a result.

Q3: 8th -> 1:44.479 (17 Laps)

Without seeming, the winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans continues his impressive streak in Q3, with a 7th consecutive participation, a series ongoing since the Austrian round at Spielberg at the beginning of July.

However, the German was close to elimination in Q2 in Singapore, only 0.003″ separated him from Valtteri Bottas, who was eleventh! His Q3 performance was convincing, with a lap time half a second faster. Despite this, the driver marked with the number 27 appeared not very joyful once he got out of the car:

I’m not fully satisfied with this eighth place. I think there was still more speed to extract from the car, maybe two or three additional tenths. We knew that Q3 was a realistic target, but we expected more competition here against the Toro Rossos.

I had a bit of trouble finding my rhythm because I had a small software issue in Q1. When the yellow flags came out in Q2, I hadn’t yet completed my second lap.

But in any case, Hülkenberg should be satisfied with this result, which allows him to be in a position to bring in new points (currently 46 on the scoreboard).

« Considering all these circumstances, eighth place is therefore a reasonable result, I think we are in a good position for the race. The long run practices on Friday looked solid, we did the necessary work ahead of this event. »

Sergio Pérez pays a heavy price

Q3: 10th -> 1:44.582 (20 Laps) / Penalized by eight places on the starting grid

Terrible paradox for the Mexican driver. After giving everything to gain two positions and qualify for Q3, the stewards inflicted a double penalty on him, prompted by Romain Grosjean’s accident. During this neutralization, a double yellow flag regime was in place at turns 9 and 10. But the former McLaren driver simply did not slow down enough. Worse, he even improved his time at the end of that lap, which allowed him to reach Q3, before being penalized by the officials. Qualified 10th, he will receive a 5-place penalty for not slowing down under yellow flag conditions, plus three additional places for an illegal overtake on Esteban Gutierrez at the same time.

Defending himself against the accusations, which mainly came from Williams; Pérez stated: « the driver I passed (Gutiérrez) was excessively slow. The stewards did not ask him why he was so slow. I don’t know if he had a problem with his car or if he was aborting his lap! So I passed him very cautiously, braking harder and entering the corner more slowly. »

« The rules show that you must significantly ease off the throttle, which I did. »

The whole problem here is the interpretation of this slowdown rule in this specific case of the yellow flag at a crucial moment during Qualifying. Let’s remember Nico Rosberg kept his Pole in Hungary after an investigation into a similar action, following Fernando Alonso’s spin causing a yellow flag.

For the wronged driver today, this changing interpretation is a problem « If you leave the decision to the stewards, they will always act according to their own feelings. I don’t know what I could have done better except abort my lap, but that’s not what the rule says.

If things continue like this in the future, then you will have drivers who suddenly shorten their lap, or who suddenly slow down, which can make things even more dangerous. We see here that there is inconsistency and different treatments in the rules.