F1 2 Hour Time Limit: Why F1 races can exceed 2 hour limit?

Tanish Chachra | 13/09/2020
F1 2 Hour Time Limit: Why F1 races can exceed 2 hour limit?

F1 2 Hour Time Limit: Under which scenario can an F1 race exceed the 2-hour mark, and how much time extension does it provide.

At the Tuscan Grand Prix, the race was lengthy and chaotic, the main reason was the two red flags shown in the race which caused big stoppages in the race. As per the current rules of Formula 1, a race shall not exceed the 2-hour mark.

The race is obligated to end by this mark. However, there is a major exception to this rule which was applied during the Tuscan Grand Prix, which took almost 150 minutes to complete.

As per the F1 rules, The race can not exceed two hours in length; if this interval is reached the race will be ended at the end of the next full lap.

The only exception is if the race is halted by a Red flag in which case the total time including the red flag stoppage must not exceed 4 hours (since 2012), and the total time excluding the red flag stoppage may not exceed 2 hours.

The race at Mugello saw 2 red flags, the first time since 2017, and the exception to the 2-hour rule was applied over here making it a lengthier race than usual.

Chaos at Mugello

The beginning of the race at Mugello was full of chaos, the first incident happened literally after the first turn, Pierre Galsy and Max Verstappen were forced out of the race due to a Carlos Sainz losing the control of the car, although it didn’t lead to red flags.

The second incident happened that brought out the red flags was during lap 6, when multiple drivers were involved in a crash and forced four drivers out. Then Lance Stroll during the last few laps collided with the barriers to force another set of red flags to come out.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
F1 Red flags

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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