No.93 Peugeot loses third place start due to rain light issue

The No.93 Peugeot in Brazil | Credit: Peugeot Sport

The No.93 Peugeot that was qualified third by Jean-Eric Vergne, just behind the Ferrari front-row lockout, has lost all of its qualifying lap times due to the teams failure to enable to rain light in the Hyperpole session.

Early on in the session, the race directors informed the crew that their rain light was not enabled, and told the team to turn it on.

“Approximately one and a half minutes into the session, the race director informed Car 93 that its rain light was not functioning and instructed the team to activate it. Despite this request, Car 93 failed to illuminate the rain light and subsequently received a second instruction from the race director" read the stewards bulletin.

It continued; "The team manager explained to the stewards that, before the start of the Hypercar Hyperpole session, the team believed the issue had been resolved, and Car 93 was released to take part in the session.

“Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined that the rain light of Car 93 was required to remain operational and illuminated throughout both sessions, and that it was the responsibility of the team to ensure that its car complied with the applicable regulations.

“The stewards therefore decided to cancel all lap times set by Car 93 in both the Hypercar Qualifying and the Hypercar Hyperpole sessions.”

This means that all of the other competitors in the Hypercar category will shuffle up one spot on the grid. The No.6 Porsche fills the gap in third, the No.50 Ferrari gets bumped to fourth and the No.99 Proton Porsche sneaks into the top five.

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