A start line incident is thought to have triggered the phantom Safety Car. Image: InSyde Media
There was confusion on the opening lap of the race when yellow flags and Safety Car boards were shown at several flag points.
That led to a mix of drivers slowing and others continuing to race until any sign of a Safety Car instruction swiftly disappeared.
Among those worst affected by the confusion were Matt Payne and Broc Feeney, the former dropping from second to fourth, while the latter fell out of the top 10.
Motorsport Australia launched a post-race investigation into the matter to determine if any drivers should be penalised for passing under what were technically yellow flag zones.
The outcome of the investigation was that no further action would be taken for any of the drivers, the mitigating circumstance being that race control never instructed any flag marshals to display yellow flags or Safety Car boards.
Drivers describe confusion over phantom Safety Car
“On Lap 1 at Turn 4 waved yellow flags and safety car boards were displayed at two flag points,” read the stewards statement.
“At least one car passed another while these circumstances prevailed.
“There was no incident which justified the deployment of a Safety Car or the display of yellow flags and Safety Car boards. The race director did not decide to deploy the safety car and took no steps to do so.
“It is fundamental that drivers obey flags and boards. However, the stewards have concluded that no further action should be taken in these extraordinary circumstances because: 1 – no direction came from race control to deploy the Safety Car. Therefore in-car warning was activated and the timing screens remained green.
“2 – visibility was difficult due to both dust and congestion of the traffic and review of onboard footage from some cars confirms this.
“3 – the situation was quickly rectified by race control who communicated full green over [race management channel].”
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