FIA confirms qualifying changes

Calls to introduce a maximum laptime were made in the wake of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton being penalized for getting in the way of Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso in the closing seconds of Q3 at Sepang.

More worrying that the sporting aspect, however, was the fact that the closing speed of the cars on flat-out qualifying laps and those cruising back to the pits made the situation very dangerous.

With the FIA having looked into the matter over the past two weeks, Formula One race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed that drivers will be forced to complete a certain section of a lap during qualifying in a maximum time.

In a statement issued on Friday, Whiting said: "In order to avoid the possibility of an incident caused by the speed differential of cars on out laps and in laps during Q3, in addition to reconnaissance laps whilst the pit lane is open for the race, any driver deemed to be driving unnecessarily slowly during these laps, or in a manner which might endanger other drivers, will be reported to the stewards.

"Cars leaving the pits will be timed between SC (safety car) line 2 (50 metres before turn 1) and SC line 1 (after turn 15), any car exceeding a time of 1.39.0s between these points will be deemed to have been driven unnecessarily slowly."