-
Laurence Edmondson
ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Lewis Hamilton has received a five-place grid penalty for Ferrari’s home grand prix at Monza after he breached yellow flag rules ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was summoned to the stewards for speeding under yellow flags during reconnaissance laps on the way to the grid ahead of Sunday’s race.
Unlike other circuits in F1, the layout of the lap at Zandvoort means the pit lane entry overlaps with the back of the grid.
To ensure the safety of those visiting and working on the grid ahead of the race, the race director issued a note to all driver and teams in advance saying double waved yellow flags would be in place in the final corner to ensure drivers reduce their speed “significantly” before entering the pits.
After checking telemetry, the stewards found that Hamilton had not reduced his speed enough to abide by the rules surrounding double-waved yellow flags.
“The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10% to 20% and had lifted and braked 70 metres earlier when entering the pit lane,” the stewards statement said.
“We did not consider that a 20kph reduction in speed at a double waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly’. We also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry road as being at a ‘greatly’ reduced speed.
“The penalty guidelines for such an infringement would ordinarily attract a penalty of 10 grid positions at the next race. However, given that the driver had made an attempt to reduce his speed and to brake earlier, we took that into account as mitigating circumstances and imposed a 5-grid place penalty.”
The decision, which was issued nearly four hours after the race, followed a disappointing afternoon for Hamilton in which he crashed out of seventh place on Lap 23.
Teammate Charles Leclerc escaped a penalty of his own in Monza after the stewards deemed his collision with George Russell at the Dutch Grand Prix a racing incident.
Leclerc and Russell were racing over fifth place when the Ferrari driver barged past the Mercedes on the inside of Turn 12 and they banged wheels.
The stewards investigated whether Leclerc had caused a collision while also analysing if he gained an advantage by leaving the track.
“Car 63 [Russell] and Car 16 [Leclerc] were involved in a collision at Turn 12,” the stewards’ statement said. “Car 63 had been ahead of Car 16 at Turn 11. Car 63 lost the position to Car 16 at the exit of Turn 12.
“We investigated, with the benefit of the driving standards guidelines, whether either driver should have done something different.
“We also looked into whether Car 16 remained on the track or left the track at Turn 12. The available evidence was inconclusive as to whether Car 16 left the track. Both team representatives were in agreement that there was no clear evidence that Car 16 had left the track.
“Both drivers felt that this was a racing incident and that there should be no further consequence to either driver for the incident. We reviewed all the available evidence and arrived at the same conclusion.”