How Hulkenberg advanced to Bahrain Q2 with an illegal lap

The FIA stewards have explained why Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg advanced to Q2 with a lap that exceeded track limits, an incident that robbed Williams driver Alex Albon of a spot in the second round of qualifying in Bahrain.

Hulkenberg's third and final push lap in Q1 yielded a 1m31.998s, enough to dump out Albon by a mere 0.042s. The German then went on to qualify 13th in Q2, before his quickest Q1 lap was investigated and ultimately deleted for track limits, demoting him to 16th.

As Q2 had already commenced at that time, Albon, who was bumped up to 15th in the final classification, never got the opportunity to take part in Q2 and so could not qualify higher than that.

The reason for Hulkenberg's deleted lap time was him going wide on the exit of Turn 11, where he crossed the white line with all four wheels and drifted over the kerbs. The error actually cost him lap time rather than gain him anything, with the Sauber driver ruing he had left over two tenths on the table to his race engineer. But the FIA's rulebook is black and white, so Hulkenberg's lap should have been deleted at the time.

The incident caused fury at Williams, which questioned why Hulkenberg's transgression wasn't picked up at the time. The FIA has now explained that the off-track moment was reported too late, with the stewards then deciding to amend the result based on a provision in the International Sporting Code.

"During Q1, Car 27 clearly exceeded track limits in Turn 11. However, this was not reported to the Stewards until Q2 had commenced," the race stewards' decision document read.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

"Car 27’s time recorded on the lap that track limits were exceeded, was sufficient to place it in Q2. Hence at the time the Stewards were informed that Car 27 had breached the Race Directors Event Notes and that its lap should have been deleted, it was already on track in Q2.

"As this is an unusual situation, the Stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.9.2.a of the FIA International Sporting Code.

"The lap time of 1:31.998 of Car 27 recorded in Q1 is deleted. All lap times of Car 27 in Q2 are deleted. Car 27 will therefore be classified in position 16 in Qualifying."

The sporting code article referred to gives the stewards the authority to "settle any matter which might arise during an Event, subject to the right of appeal provided for in the Code."

Williams team principal James Vowles said he struggled to understand why Hulkenberg's slip-up wasn't spotted in time for Q2.

"A bit of injustice with Alex today, I'm not feeling good about this," Vowles told Sky Sports. "Obviously the track limits are analysed live, but the result for Hulkenberg came way after we would have an opportunity to go to Q2, and today Alex had the pace to make it all the way to Q3. What I'd like to understand now is why this happened."

James Vowles, Williams

Photo by: Peter Fox - Getty Images

Albon's team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified eighth for Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

An FIA statement on the matter read: “There are a number of track limit hot spots which are monitored continuously live. Track limit hot spots are given precedence. Based on previous sessions, Turn 11 was not deemed to be an area of focus for track limits. In hindsight, it should have been higher on our priority list as a corner.

“Checks in areas of the circuit such as Turn 11 take a bit longer than those of a high priority.

“Unfortunately, in this case due to the timing of the check it was not possible to act before the start of Q2. As soon as we became aware of the incident, we acted on it. We are building towards increased resources and improved systems and processes. On this occasion, we got it wrong.”