Two Formula 1 drivers were spared penalties for overtaking under red flags in Monaco Grand Prix practice, a day after Ollie Bearman incurred a heavy 10-place grid penalty for the offence.
Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto were both placed under investigation in the aftermath of Saturday's practice session, albeit while Colapinto's potential offence had taken place in FP3, Sainz's was a Friday practice incident that "was only reported to the stewards the next day".
It is understood that Bearman's Haas team wasn't the one that brought the matter to the stewards' attention.
Sainz overtook, coincidentally, none other than Colapinto coming out of Ste Devote during the early minutes of FP2, when an Isack Hadjar incident had just triggered the red flag.
And Colapinto was investigated for going past Lance Stroll after the Nouvelle Chicane during the end-of-session red flags in FP3 brought out by Lewis Hamilton's crash.
In both cases the stewards observed mitigating circumstances they felt were not present in Bearman's situation.
Both Sainz and Colapinto were observed to be running "very close" to the cars in front of them - 42 and 30 metres behind respectively - when they received the red-flag signal.
In Sainz's case, a "significant speed delta" was observed that the overtake was "an inevitable consequence of".
The onboard footage confirms this, with Sainz much faster on the run to Beau Rivage than Colapinto in the moment of the red flag's deployment.
The stewards were satisfied that the Williams driver "took immediate steps to slow down in a safe matter" as required by the regulations once he'd cleared Colapinto.
For Colapinto's overtake on Stroll on Saturday, the relevant marshal's post "was still showing a blue flag" instead of a red flag until he'd come up very close behind Stroll's Aston Martin on exit of the Nouvelle Chicane.
Onboard footage suggests Colapinto was already launching out of the corner when the light panel started flashing red instead of blue - and he slowed immediately as he went past Stroll.
Because of this, the stewards likewise felt Colapinto "took all reasonable steps to slow down immediately and appropriately".
While the arguments of speed delta and momentum could also be applied to Bearman's Rascasse overtake, there the stewards had felt - also informed by Bearman's post-session testimony - that he actively took a "decision" to overtake rather than slow down abruptly, and that in doing so he contravened both the wording and the intention of the red flag regulations.
"We disagreed with his decision not to take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required," the stewards wrote.
It means Bearman remains the sole driver with a 10-place grid penalty hanging over him, with Stroll carrying a one-place penalty for his wandering into the path of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari in the opening minutes of FP1.
