Sainz under investigation for yellow flag breach

Carlos Sainz is under investigation for a breach of the yellow flag rules during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver and a team representative have been ordered to report to the stewards at 1:30pm local time [10:30am UK] on Sunday, less than four hours ahead of the race start.

It follows a puncture on Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri late in Q3 as the French driver was on his second hot lap at the Losail International Circuit.

That resulted in initially single-waved yellows being shown before being upgraded to double-waved yellow flags that require a driver to slow down significantly and be prepared to stop.

Unlike Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver also summoned to the stewards' for a similar breach, Sainz did not set his fastest final sector of the session when the double waved yellows were shown and nor did he improve his lap time.

However, the Spaniard was only 0.225secs off his best lap time.

In his event notes referring to yellow flags, race director Michael Masi said: "Drivers should reduce their speed and be prepared to change direction.

"It must be clear that a driver has reduced speed and, in order for this to be clear, a driver would be expected to have braked earlier and/or discernibly reduced speed in the relevant marshalling sector."

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