Track limits enforced at three turns during Emilia Romagna GP

The move comes after the controversy at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where there was confusion about the enforcement of track limits at Turn 4.

Ahead of this weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, FIA race director Michael Masi has confirmed that lap times will be deleted during free practice and qualifying if a driver is adjudged to have exceeded track limits at Turn 9, 13 and 15.

During the race, drivers will receive a black and white flag if they exceed track limits three times and could face a penalty if they continue to do so.

Max Verstappen, who had to cede position to Lewis Hamilton during the Bahrain Grand Prix after passing him off the track, is one of a number of drivers to seek an explanation about the way track limits had been enforced in Bahrain.

While the Dutchman accepted the reasoning behind giving the position back to Hamilton, he questioned why drivers had been able to gain an advantage throughout the race by running wide.

"Either you can go wide, or not," Verstappen said. "I can understand of course with my overtake outside the track limits that that's not allowed, so that's fine.

"But if you cannot gain an advantage by doing so going wide while overtaking why are you allowed to do it on your own? I think it's not correct, so we'll talk about that with the drivers and Michael. We'll see what comes out of it.

"It was a little bit messy in the race, everything before that was very strict and I think good. In the race, for 30 laps or something, Lewis was going wide and you gain time there. I tried it for two laps and then they told me not to, so it's a bit odd.

"But about my overtake, that was fully understandable."

FP1 ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix gets underway at 11:00 CET on Friday 16 April.