No overtaking
Official name: No overtaking by motor vehicles
Other mandatory and prohibitory signs
- Sign code
- F1
- Category
- Other mandatory and prohibitory signs
- Traffic signs
- Motor vehicles may not overtake each other.
Sign F1 prohibits motor vehicles from overtaking each other. You may not pass a car, motorcycle or lorry while the prohibition applies. You may still overtake cyclists, mopeds and agricultural vehicles, because those are not motor vehicles on more than two wheels.
What to do at sign F1
Stay behind the vehicle in front until the prohibition ends. Even if the road looks empty and passing would be easy, the prohibition still applies.
It runs until sign F2, end of no overtaking, or until the next junction.
Who you may still overtake
The prohibition is about motor vehicles. A bicycle, moped or tractor does not count, so you may pass those when it is safe.
This distinction is exactly what the exam tests.
How to recognise the sign
F1 is round with a red border and shows two cars side by side, the left one red. The red car is the one overtaking.
F3 looks similar but shows a lorry: the prohibition then applies only to lorries.
Where you will see it
On provincial roads with oncoming traffic, before bridges and tunnels, and on motorways at roadworks or a narrowing.
Difference from F3, no overtaking for lorries
F1 stops every motor vehicle from overtaking. F3 shows a lorry and applies only to lorries. In a car you may overtake normally at F3.
F3, no overtaking for lorriesFrequently asked questions
- May you overtake a cyclist at sign F1?
- Yes. The prohibition covers motor vehicles, and a bicycle is not one.
- How far does the no-overtaking rule apply?
- Until sign F2, end of no overtaking, or until the next junction.
- May you overtake a tractor at F1?
- Yes, an agricultural tractor is not a motor vehicle on more than two wheels as this sign means it.
Practise this sign for your theory exam
No overtaking belongs to the Other mandatory and prohibitory signs category. In the CBR theory exam a traffic sign is almost never asked on its own: you are shown a situation and have to know what you may or must do in it. In the free sign trainer you practise the signs by category, with the explanation shown right after every answer.
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