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Lewis Hamilton has lost his front row start and will line up in fourth place for the start of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Briton was found guilty of impeding Kimi Raikkonen during the first stage of qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.
It promotes Max Verstappen onto the front row, while Valtteri Bottas will line-up alongside his Mercedes teammate despite having a grid drop of three places.
A statement read from the stewards read: "The Stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from the driver of car 7 (Kimi Raikkonen) and the driver of car 44 (Lewis Hamilton) and the team representatives and determined that car 44 unnecessarily impeded car 7 at turn 3.
"Car 44 had just come out of the pits and was informed of the cars approaching,
including car 7. Although car 44 tried to take evasive action when he became aware of
car 7 approaching on a fast lap, it was not sufficient to avoid impeding car 7, which had
to then abort the lap.
"Competitors are reminded that they have the right to appeal certain decisions of the
Stewards, in accordance with Article 15 of the FIA International Sporting Code and
Article 9.1.1 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits."
Hamilton also receives a penalty point on his license, which is his first over the last 12 months.
"Totally deserved the penalty today and have no problem accepting it," Hamilton wrote on social media. "Was a mistake on my behalf and I take full responsibility for it. It wasn't intentional. Anyway, tomorrow is another and an opportunity to Rise."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Colour me surprised. Lewis Hamilton actually getting penalized?
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
hmm it appears that the stewards can't really make any decisions that F1 fans will not somehow complain about...
I think this was another instance where by the book the penalty should have been applied, but I would have rather not seen a penalty. On principle. In practice, it will actually be more fun to have Leclerc and Max at the front.
Furthermore, it's the third weekend in a row where penalties make headlines, which I think is bad for the sport. I think impeding should be penalized with flagrant violations, and when they actually affect the outcome. For example, Raikkonen went through. Kvyat didn't because Russell impeded him. Both got the same penalty.
At any rate, I'm massively pumped for tomorrow's race. Can't wait. Seb rounding the top 10. Lewis in the middle. Leclerc and Max at the front. McLaren showing promising pace and Sainz racing from the back. It's days like these when I get particularly annoyed with those that say our sport is boring and predictable
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Nah, but at the very least they seem to be somewhat consistent. Somewhat. Even if Kimi didn't need to take an all that alternative route, he was hindered from comitting to the corner as one would during a fast lap, so he was impeded. The incidents were different but similar, and it was fair that Hammy too got penalized. To me, what's interesting here is that Hammy got a penalty in a scenario he never would've been penalized earlier. If that trend follows, the delivery of penalties might get a bit more fair, where people like Hammy and Max could get the same penalties as the midfield drivers for similar mishaps, and that is a good thing. Now if they could stop penalizing drivers for mishaps down to the team, that'd be great.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
About time he got a penalty. However I am still surprised the stewards applied the rules. Is this the new way are the rules now applied fairly?
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
crazy!! best saturday in a long time
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yeah, this was a very entertaining saturday. The penalty didn't do anything for me either way, aside from surprise that Hammy got a penalty, but tomorrow's lineup and the quality of today's events were pretty good. Austria tend to offer a surprise or two, so I look forward to Sunday.