The penalty for false starts has been changed for this year’s Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

The standard Time Penalty has been reduced to five seconds having been 10 last year.

Rule D8.1.10 of the Operations Manual stipulates that it shall be served at the first pit stop, once service on the car has been carried out, as has been the case in recent years.

Time penalties still may not be served under Safety Car, meaning they carry over to the next pit stop or are added to the driver’s race time.

Stewards also have the discretion to apply an alternate penalty, which would cover for situations where the advantage of a false start exceeds the size of the time penalty.

The time penalty for a false start in Super2 is also five seconds, although that figure is unchanged relative to 2019.

Race 1 of the 2020 Supercars Championship starts today at 16:20 local time/16:50 AEDT, after qualifying from 11:55 local time.

Rule D8.1.10

Penalties for a false start

The Penalty for a false start for VCS will be:

a) A 5 second Time Penalty served at the completion of the first Pit Stop; or
b) Such other Penalty as may be determined by the Stewards.