The decision not to neutralise the race following Alex Lynn’s accident has drawn criticism from several drivers – were two yellow flags enough?
Several drivers from the World Endurance Championship (WEC) have sharply criticised race control following the season finale at Monza for failing to introduce a Full-Course Yellow (FCY) or a safety car after a heavy crash in the closing stages.
Just two minutes before the end of the 6-hour race, Alex Lynn’s #12 Cadillac (Stevens/Nato/Lynn) crashed heavily into the barriers following a collision with Malthe Jakobsen’s #94 Peugeot (Duval/Jakobsen/Pourchaire) in the section after the second chicane.
The Cadillac V-Series.R was severely damaged and blocked the track, with debris strewn across the track leading up to the Lesmo bends. Lynn was forced to remain in the wrecked car until he was instructed to climb over the crash barriers.
To everyone’s surprise, race control decided against a neutralisation and merely waved double yellow flags. Aston Martin driver Tom Gamble, who might have avoided a penalty for exceeding the energy limit had there been an FCY, expressed his irritation.
“I thought that would lead to at least an FCY. As I drove past, I could see the driver walking along the track. You can’t help but think that’s a bit questionable,” said the 25-year-old.
This criticism is the latest in a season in which the race control’s handling of incidents has frequently sparked debate. After the race at Fuji, Toyota driver Sébastien Buemi had already remarked that the race control’s decisions were difficult to understand – for example, when to activate FCY (no pit stops allowed) and VSC (pit stops allowed).
WEC
Here is the video of the utterly stupid crash at the end of the WEC race at Monza between JAKOBSEN and LYNN
(VIA @lequipe)
# WEC #6HMonza https://t.co/Itv5PNZFeO— RaceLineFR (@RaceLineFR) 8 November 2026
Gamble agrees and criticised the lack of consistency: “Sometimes even a small piece of debris is enough to trigger a VSC, whilst a car is half on the track and it remains at double yellow flags.”
Eduardo Barrichello, who was battling for the LMGT3 victory in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (Newell/Barrichello/Adam), also had strong words to say about the situation: “I wish we’d had a safety car, a full-course yellow or something like that. That was very dangerous and, in my opinion, not right.”
Loic Duval, on the other hand, expresses understanding for the race control’s decision. Speaking to Motorsport.com Global, the Peugeot driver emphasises that the late stage of the race played a part.
“If that had happened earlier in the race, race control would certainly have reacted differently,” he explains. “As it was the end of the race and double yellow flags were being shown, everyone knew they had to drive extremely slowly. Nobody took any risks at that point, and we can be glad of how the situation was handled.”