James Vowles slams stewards over late Nico Hulkenberg sanction: “We missed Q2 because of it”. FIA admits mistake over delayed Hulkenberg penalty at Bahrain GP.

The Bahrain GP qualifying gave the stewards plenty of work. There was, of course, the unusual penalty handed to both Mercedes drivers, which cost George Russell a front-row start and dropped Andrea Kimi Antonelli from the second to the third row, but another issue stirred even more discussion: Nico Hulkenberg’s penalty. The Sauber driver was dropped from 13th to 16th for exceeding track limits at Turn 11 during Q1.

His lap time was deleted late, after Nico Hulkenberg had already begun Q2. This ended up hurting Alex Albon, who was eliminated in Q1 but would have progressed if Nico Hulkenberg’s time had been deleted immediately. Understandably, this didn’t sit well with Williams team principal James Vowles, who knows how tight the midfield battle is and how every single qualifying position can matter in the championship.

James Vowles gets angry
“I don’t feel comfortable with what happened, it’s frustrating,” James Vowles told Sky Sports F1. “Track limits are reviewed in real time, but the outcome of the Nico Hulkenberg investigation came very late. We could have gone into Q2, and Alex had the pace to reach Q3,” the British team boss stated. Indeed, Carlos Sainz, in the other Williams, qualified eighth—ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
Vowles also admitted his team bore some responsibility for Alex Albon’s early exit: “We didn’t have a good out-lap and got stuck in traffic,” he explained. However, he called on the FIA to clarify why the decision came so late.

Admission of fault
The stewards acknowledged the mistake. The FIA explained that Turn 11 had been given “low priority” in their track limits monitoring. “There are various key areas on the track that are monitored live,” a spokesperson said. “High-priority zones are dealt with first. Based on previous sessions, Turn 11 wasn’t considered a track limits hotspot. In hindsight, it should have been higher on our priority list.”

“Monitoring areas like Turn 11 takes slightly more time compared to higher-priority spots,” the FIA continued. “Unfortunately, due to the timing of the check, it wasn’t possible to act before Q2 began. As soon as we were aware of the incident, we responded. We are working to improve our resources, systems, and processes. In this case, we made a mistake.”