47. Suspending And Resuming The Race¶

47.1. Suspending the race¶

Should it become necessary to suspend the race because the circuit is blocked by an accident or because weather or other conditions make it dangerous to continue, the Race Director / Clerk of the Course will order red flags to be shown at all marshal posts and the abort lights to be shown at the Line.

When the signal is given, cars must slow to a maximum of 80 km/h and overtaking is forbidden. The pit exit will be closed and all cars must proceed slowly to the red flag line where they must stop in single file and will be placed under Parc Fermé conditions.

The Safety Car will be placed in front of the cars lined up behind the red flag line.

While the race is suspended:

Driving stints will all stop at the time of the red flag and will resume when the race restarts.
the length of the race suspension will be added to the remaining time for the race, subject to the approval of the Stewards and the constraints of the Event timetable.
Only Officials are allowed on the grid
The drivers are allowed to get out of their cars, to remove helmets and gloves, but must remain with their cars
No driver changes are permitted
The drivers must obey the marshals' instructions at all times

a) For cars on the grid

All interventions on the cars are prohibited on the grid, unless authorisation is given from Race Control, who may authorise checks on tyres and covering the car in case of rain. If authorised, this may be carried out by a maximum of two Team members.

b) Any cars which were in the pit lane or had commited to the pit lane by leaving the track before the red flag was declared and which have already left their working area to go to the pit exit, or are waiting at pit exit, will, when it is safe to do so, be allowed to leave the pit lane and complete one slow lap of the track to join the back of the field.

Any cars which were in the pits before the signal to suspend the race was given (i.e. they have crossed the pit entry timing loop), may complete their refuelling, driver change and/or tyre change but no further work may take place. As soon as any refuelling, driver change and/or tyre changes are completed and all equipment is removed they will be in Parc Fermé conditions.

At any point after the three-minute signal and before the green flag, any such car may move to the end of the pit lane and after receiving a green flag or light at pit exit, may join at the back of the line of cars behind the Safety Car. If cars have started any further work (Article 39.1) then this work must stop at the Red Flag and may only resume once the three-minute signal has been given.

c) Any cars which entered the pit lane after the red flag signal was given must proceed to their working area under Parc Fermé conditions. Once the three-minute signal is given for the race to resume, work may commence on these cars. They may move to the end of the pit lane when the race has been resumed, and may join at the end of the first lap after the race has been resumed. This also includes any cars pushed off the grid after the 10-minute signal.

Special Case D: Should a red flag be deployed during the mandatory pit window, all cars must return to the pit lane, where they will be under Parc Fermé conditions until the Race Director instructs otherwise. The race will be restarted using the race order at the end of the last full lap before the opening of the pit window, with the second driver behind the wheel. Further instructions will be given by the Race Director.

On the instructions of the Race Director, cars which have not made their pit stop will be released from Parc Fermé only to change tyres and driver.

Specifically, under these circumstances, the resumption procedure described in Article 47.3 below will be amended as follows:

The Race Director will announce a time warning of at least 5 minutes
The Safety Car will be positioned at the pit exit with its lights illuminated
The pit marshals will call the cars forward from their pit boxes according to the grid provided by the timekeepers
Once all cars are in position, the Safety Car will proceed on track and all cars will follow in single file.

The Safety Car will leave the track and the race will be resumed as described in Article 46.7.

Should it not be possible to resume the race, the final classification will be that of the race order at the end of the last full lap before the opening of the pit window.

It is further clarified that should a red flag be deployed during the mandatory pit window, any time penalties which had been awarded by the Stewards (Article 16.6) to take place during the mandatory pit stop, as well as any time penalties in accordance with Article 10.4, will be applied to the final race result.

g) g) Special Case CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa

Considering the number of cars and the space available, cars may be lined up in columns in the order of arrival at the red flag line.

The length of the race suspension will not be added to the remaining time for the race.

Any car which has started a Technical Pit Stop prior to the red flag must cease work at the moment the red flag is shown and work may not recommence until Parc Fermé conditions are lifted. The car must then remain in the pit lane until the balance of the 4-minute Technical Pit Stop time has resumed and been completed, commencing from the moment the race resumes behind the Safety Car. Any questions concerning cars which were already in the pit lane before the red flag will be checked by the Race Director after the restart and any unauthorised work will be reported to the Stewards.

All stints will be paused at the time of the red flag and the same stint will resume when the race restarts, except for cars which were already in the pit lane completing a pit stop and who have completed a driver change as permitted above. The time spent in the pit lane under red flag will not be counted towards the driving time of any driver. The Stewards will take any further decisions about specific driving times depending on the circumstances.

47.2. Not in use¶

47.3. Resuming the race¶

The delay will be kept as short as possible and as soon as a resumption time is known, Teams will be informed via the timing monitors, Team Messaging system and Team radio; in all cases at least ten minutes' warning will be given.

Signals will be shown ten minutes, five minutes, three minutes, one minute and fifteen seconds before the resumption, and each of these will be accompanied by an audible warning.

The Race Director, for safety reasons, may decide to authorise a tyre change from dry-weather to wet-weather tyres. If authorised, this must take place between the ten and five-minute boards.

From the 10-minute signal, the cars on the grid are no longer under Parc Fermé conditions and Team members may access the grid only to assist the driver, check tyres and brakes, bring and connect an external battery only for the purpose of restarting the engine and, if authorised by the Race Director, to change the tyres.

A Team may, with permission from the Race Director, remove a car from the grid. In this case, they will be allowed to rejoin the race with the cars according to Article 47.1 c).

When the five-minute signal is given, all cars must have their wheels fitted. After this signal, wheels may only be removed in the pit lane or on the grid during a further suspension of the race.

A penalty will be imposed on any Competitor whose car did not have all its wheels fully fitted at the five-minute signal.

When the three-minute signal is given, the cars must be resting on their wheels. A penalty will be imposed on any Competitor whose car was not resting on its wheels or did not have all its wheels tightened at the three-minute signal.

At some point after the three-minute signal, which will depend on the expected lap time, any cars between the red flag line and the leader will be waved off to complete a further lap, without overtaking, and join the line of cars behind the Safety Car. At this point, the race director may authorise a wave-by procedure in accordance with article 46.9 to take place.

For cars in the pit lane, the provisions of Article 47.1 b) and c) must be followed.

When the one-minute signal is given, engines will be started. All Team personnel must leave the grid by the time the 15-second signal is given, taking all equipment with them. If any driver needs assistance after the 15-second signal, he must indicate this to the marshals and, when the remainder of the cars able to leave the grid have done so, marshals will be instructed to push the car into the pit lane. In this case, marshals with yellow flags will stand beside any car (or cars) concerned to warn drivers behind.

Any driver who is unable to start this lap must indicate this to the marshals. When leaving the grid, all drivers must proceed at a greatly reduced speed until clear of any personnel standing beside the track.

Marshals will be instructed to push any car (or cars) remaining on the grid into the pit lane by the shortest route as soon as all cars able to leave the grid have done so. Any driver being pushed from the grid must not attempt to start the car and must follow the instructions of the marshals.

The race will be resumed behind the Safety Car when the green lights are illuminated. The Safety Car will enter the pits after one lap unless all cars are not yet lined up behind it, or the Safety Car may continue until the Race Director decides it is safe to resume the race.

When the green lights are illuminated, the Safety Car will leave the grid with all cars following, in the order in which they stopped behind the red flag line, no more than 5 car lengths apart. Soon after the last car in line behind the Safety Car passes the end of the pit lane, the pit exit light will turn green. Any cars which were in the pit lane before the red flag (Article 47.1 b)) may then enter the track and join the line of cars behind the Safety Car. Cars which entered the pit lane after the red flag (Article 47.1 c)) may move to the end of the pit lane after the race has resumed, and rejoin after the first lap behind the Safety Car.

Overtaking during this lap is permitted only if a car is delayed when leaving the red flag line and cars behind cannot avoid passing it without unduly delaying the remainder of the field. In this case, drivers may overtake only to re-establish the order they were in before the race was suspended. Any driver delayed in this way who is unable to re-establish the correct order before he has crossed Intermediate Timing Point 2 (the end of timing sector 2), or another location advised in the Race Director's briefing notes for the Event, must drop to the back of the grid and resume the race from there. During this lap, Article 2.10 of ISC Appendix H and Article 46.7 above will apply.

Any driver who is delayed leaving the red flag line may not overtake another moving car if he was stationary after the remainder of the cars had crossed the red flag Line, and must form up at the back of the line of cars behind the Safety Car. If more than one driver is affected, they must form up at the back of the field in the order in which they left the grid.

A penalty will be imposed on any driver who, in the opinion of the Stewards, unnecessarily overtook another car during the first lap.

With the exception of the Special Case D situation where a red flag is deployed during the mandatory pit window (see Article 47.1), if the race cannot be resumed, the final classification will be that of the race order at the end of the penultimate lap before the lap during which the signal to suspend the race was given.

47.4. Not in Use¶

47.5.¶

A car which is judged by the Stewards to have been responsible for causing an incident or situation which resulted in a Red Flag may be given a penalty up to and including disqualification from the Race.