Christian Horner does not ‘understand’ FIA decision after ‘dangerous’ crash in Sao Paulo GP qualifying

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Christian Horner was left livid following a decision by the FIA to delay the red flag for Lance Stroll’s crash during qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The Aston Martin driver crashed at Curva do Sol during the closing moments of Q2 and was forced to retire from the session, due to extensive damage to the rear of his car.

Race Control waited over 30 seconds before throwing a red flag to neutralise the session, with both Charles Leclerc and Liam Lawson improving on their lap times.

Max Verstappen was in the middle sector and improving when the red flag came out, and with just over a minute left on the clock it meant the session would not be restarted.

This left both Verstappen and Perez outside of the top ten, with the Dutchman set to start the Sao Paulo GP from 17th on the grid owing to his five-place grid penalty. Horner was left confused over the decision from Race Control when speaking to Sky Sports after the session.

Christian Horner questions Race Control red flag delay after Lance Stroll crash in Sao Paulo GP qualifying

Verstappen branded the decision to delay the red flag “stupid” after the session, while Horner was left questioning why it took so long considering other incidents warranted an instant red flag.

“I don’t understand why it took so long for the red flag to come out. It’s obviously a big accident at Turn 3, one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, it took 40 seconds to throw the red flag and it’s the second day in a row now where we’ve had very late calls whether it was the VSC yesterday or the red flag today. The other red flags were all instantaneous,” said Horner.

“All you have to do is focus on the safety, it’s not about letting cars finish laps. As soon as you have an accident like that, it should be an instant red flag.

“You’ve got a driver in the wall at one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, cars coming through, you can’t just say ‘Oh we’ll wait for the others to finish their laps’ – it doesn’t work like that. Lance Stroll wasn’t trying to get that car going again, it was screwed, it was in the middle of the track, that’s a red flag.”

Why Max Verstappen was unlucky in Race Control decision

There are numerous factors at play when Race Control decides to throw a red flag and it is a longstanding policy to instantly bring them out during a qualifying session to stop drivers from improving lap times.

In this case, the marshals threw the double-waved yellow for Stroll’s stricken car which prompted Race Control to assess the situation. The Aston Martin driver initially attempted to recover his car without realising the extent of the damage, prompting a slight delay before the red flag came out.

Red Bull were also caught out by sending their cars out late in the session, with Perez venting his frustration to his engineer as he felt it cost them sitting in the pits.

Elsewhere, Verstappen’s first attempt was compromised by being overtaken by Esteban Ocon, who eventually improved and got himself into Q3.