Vettel reprimanded for crossing pit exit line

2017 Monaco Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel has been reprimanded by the Monaco Grand Prix stewards for crossing the yellow pit exit line during qualifying.

The Ferrari driver, who qualified second on the grid for tomorrow’s race, was reported to the stewards by race director Charlie Whiting after crossing the dividing line at pit exit in Q3.

The stewards reviewed video footage of the incident and have handed Vettel a reprimand for failing to stay within the pit exit line.

It is Vettel’s first reprimand of the season. If any driver incurs three reprimands over the course of a single season, they will receive a ten place grid penalty.

2017 Monaco Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    16 comments on “Vettel reprimanded for crossing pit exit line”

    1. Oh, I did notice that. He was only just on the yellow line but a rule is a rule.

    2. I think it’s funny that he got penalized. I think we all saw it, it was pretty much the only car the Monegasque director focused out of the pits and up the pit exit, not saying there were more cars nudging the pit exit line but it’s so tight.
      I think it’s fair to reprimand, I think it’s a good message for the race, but that has nothing to do with what happened. Politics.

      1. Whiting seems to have a grudge with Vettel.

        1. Vettel telling off Charlie in Mexico definitely didn’t help this…lol

        2. Fireblade, on the contrary, the penalty that Vettel received here (a formal reprimand) is the same as other drivers have received for offences that have involved either crossing the pit entry or pit exit in recent years – unless you are going to claim that Whiting also had a grudge against Bottas, Hulkenberg, Sainz Jr, Hamilton, Kvyat, Rosberg and Raikkonen, just to name a few of the drivers who have received penalties in recent years for crossing the pit lane exit or entry lines.

      2. @peartree Don’t understand your point, tbh. How is this politics? he only has to stay at one side of a painted line, regardless of the cameras showing it or not. It’s not rocket science…

        1. @fer-no65 First he nudged the line, second he wasn’t driving untowardly, but that’s not what I was remonstrating. I’m against the lobbying environment, teams going after teams exploiting the rule book. Many such reprimands were issued over common sense. You don’t want to understand that’s your problem.

          1. @peartree I still don’t understand what you’re on about. I seriously don’t know that’s why I’m asking and trying to comprehend your argument.

            Are you claiming this was reported by another team? because it was reported by Charlie himself. Seb touched the line, that’s black and white in the rulebook. I don’t think there’s anything in there about the manner on which you touch that painted line. Kinda like the bollard at pit entry Pascal missed 2 weeks ago at Barcelona, but a bit worse given how tight the track is here, and how the pit exit kind of gets in the way of the racing line.

            Is it a minor thing? sure, but it’s still in the rules, hence the reprimand.You say it was fair to give it to him. So? what’s your point then?

            1. @fer-no65, given that @peartree‘s posts usually come off as barely comprehensible paranoid ramblings at best, I think that it is not clear if he even understands the point that he is trying to make.

            2. @peartree LOL okey… way to end a discussion.

              Cheers.

    3. Yeh l noticed it live and recall he never went over the white line.

    4. Can a driver appeal against such a reprimand?

      1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
        28th May 2017, 2:55

        I’m not sure if they could, but I’ll bet my left nut that this is how the conversation would be –

        Driver: “But I didn’t!”
        Director: “Yes you did!”
        Driver: “Nuh-uh!”
        Director: “Uh-huh!”
        Driver: “Nuh-uh!”
        Director: “Listen, do you want some more reprimands? I’ve got a fat rule book which even I’ve not studied cover to cover, but I’ll sit my butt down tonight and FIND something else to hand you a reprimand.”

        1. OK, Vettel was wrong to sound-off against Whiting in Mexico but if the latter really is the sort to resort to cheap revenge tactics then he deserved what SV said and more. I did not see the incident in qualifying myself, but many of you who did seem to think that he did not cross the line.

          1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
            28th May 2017, 10:51

            I usually don’t pay attention to the yellow line, and I’m most certainly not implying that Whiting has it in for Vettel from Mexico. ‘Twas but a jest.

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