Lance Stroll keeps first F1 pole position at Turkish GP after investigation

Lance Stroll will keep his shock maiden F1 pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix after being cleared of an alleged yellow-flag infringement. 

The Canadian claimed a sensational first F1 pole of his career in a wet qualifying session on F1’s first visit to Istanbul Park in nine years, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.290s in a thrilling, topsy-turvy shootout at the end of Q3.

But Stroll was called to the stewards as one of the drivers under investigation for not slowing for yellow caution flags during Q3 when Racing Point teammate Sergio Perez spun off at Turn 7.

Stroll had been informed of the yellow flags by his team but was later told “that was a single yellow so keep pushing” before he improved upon his time to seal pole.

Following the investigation, the stewards deemed that no further action was neccessary, meaning he will be F1's fifth-youngest polesitter. 

The stewards ultimately ruled that Stroll had slowed in response to the yellow flags, but a drying track made it hard to judge from his sector times alone.

“Car 18 [Stroll] approached turn seven with a single yellow flag showing for the sector due to car 11 (Sergio Perez) off track on the outside of the corner," a stewards' statement read. "By telemetry, car 18 clearly came off the throttle, coasted into the corner, and then accelerated when clear of the incident.

“Sector times do not clearly show this as the track was rapidly drying and each lap was quicker than the preceding lap.”

Verstappen will start alongside Stroll on the front-row of the grid for Sunday's race, with Perez and Alex Albon on the second row.