Verdict delivered after Christchurch Safety Car investigation

Motorsport Australia has concluded its investigation into the yellow flag situation that headlined a manic start to the Christchurch opener.

David Reynolds, Cameron Hill and Macauley Jones clashed off the start-line. Safety Car boards and yellow flags were then displayed at multiple flag points, with drivers slowing and scrambling for position.

Boards and flags then disappeared, and the race resumed at full speed. However, a number of drivers were impacted. Notably, Matt Payne dropped from second to fourth, and Broc Feeney ninth to 12th.

Will Brown also sustained damage to the rear of his car, which required a lengthy service at his pit stop.

Motorsport Australia launched a post-race investigation into the situation, and determined that no further action would be taken for any drivers for passing yellow flags and boards, due to "extraordinary" circumstances. However, the report starts that is "fundamental" that drivers obey flags and boards.

Crucially, the stewards’ report concluded that Race Control did not advise flag marshals to display Safety Car boards or yellow flags.

The report reads:

"On Lap 1 at Turn 4 waved yellow flags and safety car boards were displayed at two flag points.

“At least one car passed another while these circumstances prevailed.

“There was no incident which justified the deployment of a Safety Car or the display of yellow flags and Safety Car boards. The race director did not decide to deploy the safety car and took no steps to do so.

“It is fundamental that drivers obey flags and boards. However, the stewards have concluded that no further action should be taken in these extraordinary circumstances because:

"1 – No direction came from race control to deploy the Safety Car. Therefore no in-car warning was activated and the timing screens remained green.

“2 – Visibility was difficult due to both dust and congestion of the traffic and review of onboard footage from some cars confirms this.

“3 – The situation was quickly rectified by race control who communicated full green over [race management channel].”

Supercars return to Ruapuna on Saturday morning for back-to-back Boost Mobile Qualifying sessions, beginning at 10:05am NZST/8:05am AEST.