Max Verstappen has escaped a penalty for blocking Romain Grosjean during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix as the stewards took into consideration the difficult conditions.
Heavy rain fell during Q2 and although it stopped for Q3, the track remained very wet which reduced rear visibility to almost zero.
Tenth-placed Grosjean, on a quick lap at the time, caught Verstappen and complained over team radio that he was held up and was therefore forced to abandon his lap.
Hungarian Grand Prix: Qualifying result | Saturday Gallery
Red Bull's Verstappen was called to see the stewards, but they chose to take no action against the Dutchman for several reasons.
"Verstappen was on a fast lap but then caught [Pierre] Gasly early in the lap," a statement from the stewards explained. "He then aborted the lap. Grosjean who was on a fast lap, was catching Verstappen. He was six seconds behind at Turn 11 and four seconds behind at Turn 13. Verstappen was close to Gasly going into Turn 13. At this point Gasly set up for his flying lap and Verstappen in turn slowed to get a gap. Grosjean caught Verstappen between Turn 13 and Turn 14 which impeded Grosjean.
"While Verstappen was given reasonable, if slightly delayed information by his team, the Stewards took into account that with the very wet conditions, there was limited visibility ahead, and no visibility behind the drivers. The gaps between Gasly, Verstappen and Grosjean changed over a very short section of the track, and under the conditions the Stewards determined that the impeding was not, as the rule states, “unnecessary impeding” and therefore take no further action."
Verstappen starts seventh after a difficult day for Red Bull which saw his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo qualify 12th.
