The FIA has now began an investigation as Felipe Massa began the Belgian Grand Prix slight ahead of his glot slot. This error was picked up by video footage that appeared on the internet.
The Brazilian’s wrong positioning is in breach of the regulations, but the marshals and the electronic system in place on the grid did not detect this, so race director Charlie Whiting could not act on the breach.
A spokesperson of the FIA said: “The problem was not brought to the attention of the FIA race director by either the marshals nor the automatic jump start system in time to be able to apply the appropriate penalty for jump starts. As no further information or complaints were received before the publication of the official result on Sunday night, the classification of the Belgian Grand Prix will now remain unchanged. The FIA are investigating the causes of the apparent failures in communication with race control in order to ensure a repetition is not possible.“