[E90SLAM]

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has been excluded from Saturday’s qualifying results for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the stewards found his car did not have sufficient fuel onboard to comply with the rules on its return to parc ferme. Vettel, who had qualified in third, will now start from the back of the grid.

The German stopped out on track at the end of Q3, after being told over his radio to pull over at the side of the circuit.

Although, after a lengthy discussion, the FIA stewards accepted that Vettel had stopped due to reasons of ‘force majeure’, there wasn’t enough fuel in his RB8 to provide a one-litre sample in post-qualifying scrutineering, as required by the sport’s technical regulations.

“The stewards heard from the driver and team representatives and studied telemetry evidence that showed the reason why the car was stopped,” explained the FIA in a statement.

"The Stewards accepted the explanation and considered the incident as being a case of force majeure. However a report was received from the Technical Delegate that showed during post-qualifying scrutineering an insufficient quantity of fuel for sampling purposes.

"The Stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the Competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The Competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid."

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