Max Verstappen kept pole for Saturday's Singapore sprint despite overtaking Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags. The breach happened between Turns 7 and 8 after Sergio Perez's Cadillac shed front wing debris. Both drivers were summoned to the stewards.
Telemetry showed Verstappen lifted within 40 meters of entering the yellow sector, but the speed differential was already too large to avoid passing Hamilton, who had scrubbed speed to under 60km/h. Verstappen's overtake speed was still 70km/h slower than his push lap pace. He argued that braking harder would have created an unsafe situation.
The stewards ruled Verstappen did breach the yellow flag regulation but accepted the overtake was an "unfortunate consequence" of the closing speed. No penalty. It's the kind of technical out that keeps the championship leader at the front — pole stands, and Verstappen races from P1.
Read the full story at The Race
