Mar.5 (GMM) Race director Charlie Whiting in Bahrain confirmed that drivers who complete in-laps too slowly in the final qualifying session (Q3) here will be referred to the stewards for penalty.



The rule tweak, introduced after Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalised in Malaysia, will also apply to the remainder of the 2008 season.



Whiting said the imposition of a maximum laptime for in-laps is to "avoid the possibility of an incident caused by the speed differential of cars".



The maximum laptime for the Sakhir circuit is 1 minute, 39 seconds.