McLaren has revealed that the team is in talks with the FIA over the “costly” yellow flag which saw Lando Norris eliminated in Q1 at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Norris was on course to produce the lap time that he needed to advance to the second stage when he retreated to the pit lane, resigning him to 17th place on the grid.
The Briton was shown to have straddled the kerb on the exit of Turn 16, which stalled his momentum as he embarked on the flat-out blast towards the start-finish line.
But it was highlighted that Norris had been made to reduce his speed earlier to adhere to a caution that had been flagged to cover Esteban Ocon’s slow-moving Alpine.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has divulged that it is in active discussions with the FIA to discover the reason behind a yellow flag being needed at that precise moment.
“The bitter element is that the other car is at the back of the grid tomorrow, and we will try and do our best to get back in the points and minimise the impact,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
“But obviously that was a very unfortunate qualifying for Lando today.
“We are discussing now with the FIA as to why a yellow flag was displayed at that moment in time, which was extremely, extremely costly in the economy of this weekend.
“We will try and recover tomorrow.”
There was added bewilderment at the time regarding whether the LED panel that Norris passed on track as he navigated his final attempt was indeed yellow or white.
However, Stella is adamant that McLaren has since reviewed the incident on numerous occasions and come to the definitive conclusion that it was displaying yellow.
“The team didn’t say it [to Norris] because it was displayed last minute, and we checked right now in our tools, and it is actually displayed as a yellow,” he added.
“So we were in conversation with the FIA as to why that happened, because the yellow flag isn’t necessary when there’s a car that’s off-line, going [slowly].
“Everyone tries their best. This time, it was a situation which, ideally, and I think, by the regulation, shouldn’t have happened. We paid the price.”
Norris will line up 11 places behind championship rival Max Verstappen on the grid as he endeavours to overcome a 62-point gap to the reigning three-time champion.
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