Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen's title hopes have been dealt a blow after the Dutchman was hit with a five-place grid penalty before the Qatar Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was set to start second on the grid alongside rival Lewis Hamilton, who secured pole position as Mercedes took charge in Doha.
Now Hamilton has been gifted a chance to close the 14-point gap on Verstappen in the title race with the Dutchman now starting seventh at the Losail International Circuit.
Verstappen drops back as a result of an incident at the end of qualifying, where a puncture for the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly caused confusion on track and he did not slow down sufficiently under double-waved yellow flags.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits the decision is “massive” in the fight for the championship this season.
“We are struggling to understand it. There was a yellow flag, he [Verstappen] just didn’t see it,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It’s a rogue marshall that stuck out a flag out. He wasn’t told to do so. This is a crucial blow in the world championship. It is massive.”
Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas — who qualified third — was hit with a similar punishment, only taking a three-place penalty as he failed to slow under single-waved yellows. Gasly now starts second with Fernando Alonso in the Alpine third on the grid.
The British driver admitted that he was delighted with his final lap on Saturday that secured pole in the inaugural race in Qatar. “I was off [the pace] yesterday so really had to dig deep. I was here 'til midnight working late,” he said.
“We found a lot of areas I could improve, made some changes for final practice and it seemed to work.
“You have to try to carry that through into qualifying. We didn't have any traffic and that last lap was beautiful. This track is amazing to drive — all medium and fast corners.”
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
