FIA reacts as Max Verstappen speaks out about the ‘crazy’ Austria incident
The FIA released a statement after Max Verstappen raised questions about why only a single yellow flag was shown right after his crash during qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen lost control of his Red Bull at turn nine during his final flying lap in Q3. He spun into the gravel and hit the wall, causing serious damage to the left side of his car.
Right after the crash, the FIA showed a single yellow flag. This meant drivers should slow down but could continue. Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell passed this area while finishing their laps. However, there was some confusion: Antonelli stopped his lap completely when he saw the yellow flag, thinking it was a double yellow, while Russell slowed down but kept going. Russell went on to take pole position by over two-tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The FIA looked into whether Russell broke any rules by not slowing enough during the yellow flag, but they decided he hadn’t because he reduced his speed enough in the flagged zone. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said Antonelli misunderstood the signal, thinking it was a double yellow, which means a driver must stop their lap or risk having it canceled. Russell slowed down by 25 km/h and lost about a tenth of a second on his lap time.
After his crash, Verstappen was checked at the medical center and released. During his interview, he expressed surprise about the single yellow flag and the delay in changing it to double yellow. “I only heard about that now,” he said. “That’s quite crazy.”
Antonelli admitted he made a mistake by confusing the single yellow flag for a double. He also suggested the FIA should review the flagging rules, especially for fast corners. “There was a car in the wall in a fast corner,” he said. “So I don’t understand why it didn’t go double yellow straight away because it’s a super quick corner, and if you crash there at the same time, it could end badly. It was confusing, but it is what it is. This definitely needs to be looked at, especially for high-speed corners. For slow parts, single yellow is fine, but at fast corners, it should be double yellow right away.”
According to Autosport, the FIA confirmed that race control followed the right steps. The single yellow flag was shown immediately after Verstappen’s crash, with a yellow flag appearing on their live race control messages screen just seconds after the incident. About 20 seconds later, the flag changed to double waved yellows, but by then Antonelli and Russell had already finished their laps.
The FIA explained that race control needs a moment to assess how bad the crash is and decide if a double yellow or even a red flag is needed before changing the signal.
Russell will start Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix from pole position, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had provisional pole before Verstappen’s crash, and Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc’s teammate. Verstappen will start fifth, missing out on what could have been at least a second-row spot if he had finished his lap.
The race starts at 2 pm UK time (3 pm local) at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.