The FIA has confirmed a problem with Formula 1’s Overtake Mode system affected the performance of some cars in qualifying for the sprint race.
The messages ‘overtake enabled’ and ‘overtake disabled’ appeared on the timing screens during SQ1.The session was interrupted by a red flag after Sergio Perez crashed. The FIA confirmed that, after the session restarted, Overtake Mode was unavailable for a period.
The FIA also experienced a problem with its timing systems which delayed the beginning of SQ2. It said the two faults were not connected.
“During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1,” the FIA said in a statement.
“This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1. When it became apparent that Overtake Mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.
“The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap. The second and third periods of Sprint Qualifying were not affected.”
This article will be updated
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