Stewards looked at whether Stroll had slowed sufficiently for single-waved yellow flags in closing minutes of his pole-winning Q3 when team-mate Sergio Perez went off the track at Turn Seven; But McLaren's Norris and Sainz do receive stewards' penalties and grid drops
Saturday 14 November 2020 18:27, UK
Lance Stroll's shock maiden F1 pole position has been confirmed by Turkish GP stewards after the Racing Point driver was cleared in a post-qualifying investigation over yellow flags.
Stewards looked after qualifying at whether Stroll had slowed sufficiently for single-waved yellow flags in the closing minutes of his pole-winning Q3 when team-mate Sergio Perez went off the track at Turn Seven.
But after speaking to Stroll and assessing telemetry data from Racing Point, they ruled that the Canadian had followed the regulations.
"By telemetry, Car 18 clearly came off the throttle, coasted into the corner, and then accelerated when clear of the incident," read a stewards' statement.
"Sector times do not clearly show this as the track was rapidly drying and each lap was quicker than the preceding lap."
Stroll will therefore start from the first Formula 1 pole position of his career in Sunday's race, which begins at 10.10am on Sky Sports F1 and Main Event.
But there was less positive news from the stewards' office on Saturday night for McLaren at the end of what had already been a disappointing day for the British team.
Lando Norris (five places) and Carlos Sainz (three places) were both given grid drops for separate driving infringements during qualifying.
Norris dropped out of 11th place after not aborting his lap after passing double-waved yellow flags for Nicholas Latifi's spin at the end of Q1.
"Telemetry shows that Car 4 slowed in the sector and resumed speed after the incident. Car 4 then asked his team if he should abort the lap, but was told to stay out because of the rapidly changing track conditions," read the stewards' verdict.
"Car 4 completed the lap, which turned out to be his fastest lap of Q1. While the stewards acknowledge that Car 4 was not attempting to set a quick lap time, due to the changing track conditions he nevertheless did so and thereby breached the referenced regulations."
Sainz, meanwhile, earned his a three-place drop for impeding Perez during Q2.
The stewards ruled: "Car 55 [Sainz] was exiting the pits as Car 11 [Perez] passed through turn 1. Car 11 caught up to Car 55 in turn 2/3 and was unnecessarily impeded by Car 55 at that point and through several subsequent turns.
"While extraordinary track conditions clearly impacted the situation, radio communications from the team clearly warned Car 55 that Car 11 was behind him."
Norris' greater penalty means he drops behind Sainz on the grid despite qualifying ahead, with the McLarens to line up in 15th and 16th positions on row eight.
