Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa have both been handed reprimands by the stewards in Japan after both were found guilty of exceeding the maximum time allowed between safety car lines during the Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon at the Suzuka International Racing Course.
Renault Sport F1 driver Magnussen was found to have been too slow to return to the pits at the end of the first segment of qualifying, while Williams Martini Racing’s Massa was found to have done the same at the end of the second segment in his final qualifying session in Asia as a Formula 1 driver.
Had either driver impeded another driver they could have faced a more severe punishment from the stewards, which this weekend include former Benetton and Scuderia Italia Formula 1 racer Emanuele Pirro as the driver representative.
For both drivers, it is their first reprimand of the season, with Massa set to start the Japanese Grand Prix in twelfth just behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas, while Magnussen is eighteenth, two places behind his own team-mate Jolyon Palmer.
