F1 to police track limits at five corners in Qatar

Qatar hosts F1 action for the first time in its history as it was drafted in as a last-minute replacement for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Losail circuit is a permanent fixture on the MotoGP calendar, with the track consisting of a long start-finish straight followed by a series of medium to high-speed corners.

With the kerbs being mostly flat and the track consisting of lots of run-off area, the FIA has been forced to monitor track limits at five corners.

Ahead of the weekend, race director Michael Masi confirmed that track limits will be policed at Turns 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16.

Masi noted: “[Any] lap time achieved during any practice session or the race by leaving the track…will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards”.

During the race, any driver who leaves the track three times at the aforementioned corners will be shown the black-and-white flag.

A further offence will lead the driver to be reported to the stewards and potentially hit with a penalty.

F1 will continue to delete lap times by drivers who go through double-waved yellow flag zones after being introduced as a new rule in Austin.