Vettel excluded from qualifying results for fuel infringement

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has been excluded from Saturday’s qualifying results for the 2012 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the stewards found his car did not have sufficient fuel onboard to comply with the rules on its return to parc ferme.

The German stopped out on track at the end of Q3, after being told over his radio to pull over at the side of the circuit following advice from engine supplier Renault. Vettel, who had qualified in third behind team mate Mark Webber and polesitter for McLaren Lewis Hamilton, is now expected to start from the pit lane..


Although, after a lengthy discussion, the FIA stewards accepted that Vettel had stopped due to reasons of ‘force majeure’, there wasn’t enough fuel in his RB8 to provide a one-litre sample in post-qualifying scrutineering, as required by the sport’s technical regulations.

“The stewards heard from the driver and team representatives and studied telemetry evidence that showed the reason why the car was stopped,” explained the FIA in a statement.

"The Stewards accepted the explanation and considered the incident as being a case of force majeure. However a report was received from the Technical Delegate that showed during post-qualifying scrutineering an insufficient quantity of fuel for sampling purposes.

"The Stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the Competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The Competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: "During the slow-down lap following the final run of Q3, Renault instructed to immediately stop Sebastian’s car on the circuit due to an issue with the fuel system.

"After speaking with the stewards, who accepted the situation of force majeure for technical reasons for the car to be stopped, unfortunately, for reasons yet to be fully understood, 850ml of the required one litre was pumped out of the car following post-race checks.

"As a result, the FIA has excluded Sebastian from qualifying and we will withdraw the car from Parc Ferme in order to investigate further. Therefore Sebastian will start from the pit lane for tomorrow’s race. We will need to make the most of Mark’s strong front-row grid position and Sebastian will have a busy evening ahead of him."

Click here to see the revised grid for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi round, following Vettel’s exclusion.
 For FORMULA 1 and F1 team merchandise, click here.
 GP Άμπου Ντάμπι: Χίλιες και μία…νίκες!