16. Incidents And Sanctions

16.1.

The Race Director may report any on-track incident or suspected breach of these Sporting Regulations or the Code (an "Incident") to the Stewards. After review, it shall be at the discretion of the Stewards to decide whether or not to proceed with an investigation.

The Stewards may also investigate an Incident noted by themselves.

16.2.

Any Incidents involving more than one car may be investigated immediately or reviewed after the relevant session or race. Any such Incident which results in at least one of the cars being unable to continue will be automatically placed under investigation.

16.3.

a) It shall be at the discretion of the Stewards to decide if drivers and/or Team members involved in an Incident shall be penalised. In particular, the Stewards may decide to impose a lower level of penalty if no sporting advantage has been gained.

b) If an Incident is under investigation by the Stewards, a message informing all Teams which driver or drivers are involved will be displayed on the timing monitors (if the facilities on the circuit so permit). However, failure to display notification that an Incident has been placed under investigation will not invalidate that investigation or any subsequent decision and/or penalty.

c) If a driver is involved in a collision or Incident (see Article 16.1), and has been informed of this by the Stewards no later than 60 minutes after the race has finished, he must not leave the circuit without the consent of the Stewards.

16.4.

The Stewards may impose one or more of the following penalties, simultaneously if applicable and/or in substitution or in addition to other available penalties, on any driver involved in an Incident:

a. A time penalty to be served at the next pit stop.

b. A drive-through penalty. The driver must enter the pit lane and re-join the race without stopping.

c. A stop-and-go penalty or stop-and-go with a prescribed stop time. The driver must enter the pit lane, stop in the penalty zone (for the prescribed stop time where appropriate) and then re-join the race.

d. A stop-and-go penalty to be taken at the start of a subsequent session, in which case the car concerned is not allowed to leave its pit lane working area at the start of the session until the specified penalty time has elapsed.

e. A drop of grid positions at the driver's next race.

f. Disqualification of the driver from the next race or Competition of the Series.

16.5.

Should either of the penalties under Article 16.4 b. or c. above be imposed and notified after the end of the race, or, for duration races, during the last 10 minutes, at the discretion of the Stewards, Article 16.6 below shall not apply and an additional time penalty of normally a minimum of 30 seconds in case b. and normally a minimum of 35 seconds + the prescribed stop time in case c. shall be added to the elapsed time of the car concerned. The precise time penalty in respect of case b. and case c. for each Competition, according to the pit lane length, will be notified in a Stewards' Bulletin at the Event.

The Stewards may decide to alter the length of the time penalty to be given should circumstances such as a Full Course Yellow or Safety Car in the end phase of the race have grouped the cars together such that, in their sole determination, the standard penalty would be unduly harsh.

Fines will normally be imposed for matters relating to the conduct of a driver or a Team member having no direct sporting application. These include missing a drivers' briefing or press conference without force majeure or prior agreement, speeding in the pit lane during free practice or qualifying, or other items considered by the Stewards to fall under this category. Any sums paid as fines will be placed in the SRO Motorsports Fund as authorised by the RACB further to Article 12.8.3 of the International Sporting Code (see Appendix 5). Fines may be accompanied or replaced by an obligation to accomplish some work of public interest in accordance with Article 12.4.1.d of the International Sporting Code.

Incidents occurring during free practice may result in a stop-and-go penalty during that session or the next session of this nature, of a length to be determined by the Stewards. Should Incidents occur during free practice without the possibility for the penalty to be served, the penalty may be converted into a fine.

Should a stop-and-go penalty of more than 30 seconds be imposed during Free Practice or Pre-Qualifying, the car must be parked in the working zone for the given time, but the car will not be under Parc Fermé conditions and the driver may get out. The driver may be summoned to talk to the Race Director. During Free Practice, the car may be pushed into the garage

Incidents occurring during qualifying may result in either the deletion of lap times by the Race Director or Stewards, or a drop of grid positions, the number of positions to be decided by the Stewards.

In Incidents involving cars from different categories, the driver of the car from the more professional category will be deemed to be at fault unless evidence clearly shows the contrary.

In cases of contact between cars of different categories, the Stewards may impose any penalty they consider appropriate to the circumstances. Where a Pro driver is considered to be responsible for causing a collision or other incident with an Am driver, the Stewards will normally impose a higher level of penalty than in a similar situation where the Am driver is considered to be responsible.

16.6.

Should the Stewards decide to impose a time penalty as provided for in Article 16.4 a. the following procedure shall be applied:

At the driver's next pit stop, the driver must enter the pit lane and stop in his pit stop position under Parc Fermé conditions for the given penalty time. No-one from the Team may touch the car during this period, and the driver is not allowed to open the door. Once the time has elapsed, the pit stop according to Articles 36-39 may begin. This includes any stop the driver makes whilst an FCY or Safety Car procedure is in operation.

Should the car concerned not make another pit stop after such a penalty has been imposed, the penalty time will be added to the elapsed race time of the car concerned.

Should the time penalty to be applied after a race be longer than the time of a lap, this may be converted to a penalty of deleting a number of whole laps, as determined by the Stewards, with any remaining balance of time then applied as a time penalty.

In the case that a race is red-flagged and cannot be resumed before a penalty has been served, the penalty time will be added to the elapsed race time of the car concerned.

Should the Stewards decide to impose one of the penalties provided for in Article 16.4 b. or c., the following procedure shall be applied:

a. From the time the decision of the Stewards is notified on the timing monitors, the relevant car may cross the Line on the track no more than twice before entering the pit lane and, in the case of a penalty under Article 16.4 c., proceeding to the penalty zone where it shall remain for the period of the time penalty. Unless specified otherwise by the Stewards, stop-and-go and stop-and-go penalties with a prescribed stop time are to be served in front of the respective Team's pit box. Teams are responsible for ensuring that the car stops for the period notified. When the time penalty period has elapsed, the driver may re-join the track. Whilst a car is stationary in the pit lane as a result of incurring a prescribed stop time, it cannot be worked on, other than as provided for in Article 16.5 above in relation to certain such penalties imposed during free practice and pre-qualifying. However, if the engine stops, it may be started after the penalty period has elapsed, respecting Article 33.11 c).

b. However, unless the car was already in the pit entry for the purpose of serving its penalty, it is not allowed to carry out the penalty after the Safety Car or Full Course Yellow procedures have been deployed. The number of times the driver crosses the Line behind the Safety Car or during a Full Course Yellow procedure (or crosses the Line at the end of a Safety Car period when the Safety Car has returned to the pit lane) will be added to the maximum number of times he may cross the Line on the track. At the end of a Safety Car period drivers must pass the green flag at the Line before entering the pit lane to serve a penalty (i.e they may not follow the Safety Car into the pit lane).

c. No penalty can be taken by a Team until it has been notified in writing, either on the timing monitors or by document issued by the Stewards.

16.7.

For certain infractions, the Stewards (or Race Director where appropriate) may impose penalties without summoning the Competitor to a hearing. However, if the Competitor believes they have clear evidence to suggest the penalty imposed is inappropriate they may – without requiring a formal petition for review under Article 14 of the Code and without prejudice to any subsequent such petition should a significant and relevant new element be discovered later – submit their case to the Stewards for consideration. This must be done within 30 minutes of notification of the decision in question. The Stewards will consider the evidence presented and will then issue a further decision confirming, retracting or amending the original penalty. The infractions and penalties concerned by this Article are:

o Fines and time penalties as specified in Article 34.11 for pit lane speeding infringements up to and including 62 km/h o Deletion of lap times during Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying for track limit infringements o Stop-and-go penalties during Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying for repeated track limit infringements o Deletion of lap times during Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying for cars causing a red flag as specified in Article 42.2 o Time penalties during the race for repeated track limit infringements. o Penalties for yellow flag infringements as specified in Article 33.1 b)

Other items may be added to this list by the SRO Sporting Board and notified by Sporting Note.

16.8.

The penalties given in these regulations are guidelines only. The Stewards may impose any penalty or combination of penalties specifically set out in these Sporting Regulations or available to them under the Code which they deem to be appropriate in the event of any breach of regulations. In addition, the Stewards may issue suspended penalties at their discretion. Nothing in these regulations shall preclude the Stewards from referring any matter to the appropriate ASN for consideration of further penalty in accordance with the Code should the Stewards consider that a penalty beyond their powers may be merited in any instance.

Any case not provided for in the regulations will be studied by the Stewards, who have the authority to settle any matter which might arise during an Event (Article 11.9.2.a of the Code).