The rules state that if a driver doesn't make 107% in q1 they either don't start or start from the back.

It says they don't start, there's nothing about starting from the back. The rule exists to exclude cars and drivers which are dangerously slow.

"Any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the pole position time will not be allowed to start, save for exceptional circumstances accepted as such by the stewards of the Event."

Since its re-introduction, the 107% rule has been broken a further 15 times at 10 different races, exclusively by HRT, Caterham F1, and Virgin/Marussia drivers. Unlike the rule's first period of application, where infringing drivers were very rarely allowed to compete, only four of these occurrences of the rule violation resulted in the drivers being barred from the race. These were Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, and Pedro de la Rosa and Karthikeyan at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix - all of whom drove for HRT.

They've ignored the rule a bunch of times in the past, it's not a new thing. The drivers are clearly capable of setting competitive times.