Four Motorsport Occasions in Qualifying where Drivers Ran out of Time

All the talk Italian Grand Prix qualifying was not on Leclerc’s first pole in front of the Tifosi, but instead about the mind games that occurred at the end of Q3 in which on Carlos Sainz and Leclerc crossed the line before the flag was dropped.

The session was already bookended as Kimi Raikkonen’s crash at the Parabolica had brought out a red flag, disadvantaging Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon who hadn’t completed their laps when the Red Flag came out. Bottas though was retroactively given his lap time back. This meant that heading into the final run, Lance Stroll (who had stayed in the garage) and Albon had yet to register a time.

At most other circuits they’d be out early making the use of the clear space, but not at Monza, where slipstreaming is key. No-one dared exit the pits and with two minutes left on the clock, mind games came into it. Nico Hulkenberg was the first to blink, but straight-lined the chicane (as Vettel had done on the opening run) with the German now going side by side with Carlos Sainz up Parabolica at a crawl. The Ferrari’s diced to the front and as time ticked down in the final sector the field got desperate. In the end only Sainz set a lap as Leclerc backed off, knowing he was secure on pole, and the rest did not make it.

This isn’t the first time this has happened though. Motorsport Radio takes you through 3 other ocassions where gambling until the end did not work.

NASCAR Cup Series – 2019 Auto Club Speedway

Unsurprisingly, when racing on an oval, being the lead car is not ideal. This was especially so at the Auto Club Speedway. During the second qualifying session all drivers waited at the end of pit road until the last possible minute.

Having proven it was possible, the 12 finalists again waited and played each other but this time it failed as none of them made the line. Q2’s fastest driver Austin Dillon was put on pole and NASCAR changed its qualifying rules, also penalising drivers who blocked the pit road. Full session here (Q2: 27:52 and Q3: 43:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJkYsmmRv5M

WTCC – 2013 Salzberg

Touring Cars are we subseptible to losing out because of the drag and around a high speed circuit like Salzbergring leading during the pole position lap would have almost certainly doomed you to the midfield. This was the thoughts of Tom Chilton as he backed up the field before the line. But no one was prepared to overtake.

With teammate Yvan Muller on pole and Chilton second, the Brit had no need to watch the time with none of the field crossing the line before time elapsed. The top five times kept their points, but in total twelve drivers were given grid penalties of varying severities depending on their involvement. This meant fifth placed Michel Nykjær, the only driver not on track, took actual pole, going on to win the race. Tom Coronel, who was handed the most severe penalty for continuing past the flag, explains the situation below.

Formula One – 2011 Japanese Grand Prix

Yes, even F1 hasn’t been absent of this. While the current qualifying system is second nature to us now, it wasn’t always as second nature for the drivers. So as time counted down on the final run for the Japanese Grand Prix, many were caught out by the time.

Lewis Hamilton had backed up as to find clear space, but Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher knew time was critical, overtaking into the final chicane. Hamilton backed off further not realising the time, with neither him or Schumacher able to set a lap as Webber was the last across the line.

Commenting on the issue, Hamilton, who was still third due to an earlier lap, said;

“He [Button] slowed down to get his gap and I was coming up to the last corner, trying to make sure that I had a gap between me and him. It wasn’t that big and just as I was coming into the chicane I looked in my mirror and I saw Mark diving up the inside of me, and then I saw… I didn’t even see Michael but as I gave Mark room, Michael nearly crashed me on the left, so it was… quite dangerous.”

Sebastian Vettel would take pole alongside Jenson Button, though this was more a scene of obliviousness, than a scene of gamesmanship as we saw today.

FIA F3 – 2019 Italian GP

It’s not the only incident this weekend though, with Formula 3 needing its qualifying session stopped due to the amount of cars on the same peice of track. F3 has already experienced traffic issues this season due to the 30 car grid, but with slipstreaming vital, drivers found themselves unable to complete a quick lap in the latter stages due to excessive blocking.

As a result, only a few drivers improved with times from earlier in the session determining the provisional grid. The FIA handed out 10 place penalties to six drivers, 5 place penalties to seven drivers and 3 place penalties to a further four. Notably, one of these Christian Lundgaard, despite being penalised three places still started on pole. For those not keeping count, that’s 17 of the 30 drivers punished. Will F1 see similar swift judgement as the incidents above.