Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto has been handed a 10-second time penalty for overtaking Sergio Perez at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Brazilian passed Perez's Cadillac between Turns 6 and 7 with yellow flags waving. "A waved yellow flag is an instruction in its own right and must be respected irrespective of any accompanying signal," the FIA stewards spelt out in their official decision.
The stewards accepted part of Audi's argument, acknowledging that marshals had wrongly displayed Safety Car boards although the Safety Car had not yet been sent out. Yet they ruled that the mix-up did not release him from the duty to obey a waved yellow flag, and handed down the standard penalty for overtaking under a single yellow. The sanction dropped Bortoleto from 13th to 15th in the final classification. In their ruling, the stewards also cited 2026 FIA practice, which requires drivers to obey yellow flags even when the surrounding circumstances are unusual.
