Sebastian Vettel has escaped a penalty for overtaking backmarker Jarno Trulli under yellow flags in the closing stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver was leading comfortably two laps from home when he came up to lap the slowing Lotus at Turn 4, just as the yellow flags were out for Fernando Alonso's stranded Ferrari. Vettel passed the Lotus on the inside of Turn 4, a move which was in breach of the regulations that bans car from overtaking each other when yellow flags are out.
The stewards spoke to Vettel after the race and, after also viewing video and telemetry data, they decided that since he had made "a large reduction in speed through the yellow flag area and that he understood that car 18 was slowing with an obvious problem," it was decided that no penalty would be applied.
Former grand prix driver Johnny Herbert was acting as the drivers' adviser on the stewards panel in Malaysia.