Formula 1 stewards have explained why they sanctioned Lewis Hamilton during the Mexico City Grand Prix. The Briton was investigated after he went off the track during the race while battling with Max Verstappen, after which the Dutchman asked his rival to be sanctioned.
In the end the stewards did exactly what they wanted, although he was initially investigated and cleared for not using the correct escape route at the side of the track, as directed by the race director.
Explaining why they did not penalize him, the stewards said: “Car 44 [Hamilton] locked its brakes approaching turn four and entered the run-off area.
The stewards determined that the car was going too fast to allow the driver to use the prescribed escape route and, for this reason, the driver had a justifiable reason for failing to comply with the race director’s instructions. In the circumstances, the stewards took no further action.
However, they found the Ferrari driver guilty of leaving the track and gaining an advantage by doing so, for which he was given a 10-second penalty. Hamilton was third at the time of the penalty and, when he served the penalty on his first pit stop, several cars were ahead of him when he returned to the track, finishing in eighth place.
Explaining this decision, stewards said in a separate document: ‘Car 44 locked its brakes, left the track at turn four and used the grass area to re-enter towards turn five. Since the driver failed to follow the course prescribed by the race director along the “yellow line” due to excessive speed, he is not expected to have violated the race director’s instructions.
However, by going off the track and shortening the corner, the driver gained a lasting advantage, overtaking car 1 [Verstappen] and was unable to regain the position later. Therefore, the standard penalty for going off track and gaining a lasting advantage is imposed. Hamilton was furious when informed of his penalty via radio and responded to race engineer Riccardo Adami: “What an outrage! The grip is so small there… the grip is so low!”
He seemed frustrated in front of the media and didn’t want to participate too much in interviews. He said of his result: “It was fun at first, but it didn’t end the way I expected. But that’s racing.”
And when asked about the incident that led to his penalty, Hamilton added: “It was very, very dirty off the track and I did everything I could to keep the car on the track and then get it back safely. At least I scored some points.”
