F1’s stewards have awarded Lewis Hamilton a three place grid penalty for impeding Max Verstappen during qualifying.
During Q1, Max Verstappen, on a push lap, encountered a slow-moving Lewis Hamilton at Massenet. Hamilton, on the racing line caused Verstappen to abandon his lap.
The radio exchanges played out indicated that race engineer Riccardo Adami had provided Lewis Hamilton with incorrect information on Verstappen.
Adami told the seven-time world champion that Verstappen was on a slowdown lap. This information saw Hamilton stay on the racing line, forcing Verstappen to take narrow avoiding action.
A frustrated Hamilton conveyed his dissatisfaction with the miscommunication, and the stewards confirmed an investigation.
Two hours after qualifying ended the stewards confirmed a penalty would be awarded to the Ferraru driver. Noting Hamilton’s frustrations with the team, the stewards confirmed that ‘beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded’.
Full statement from the stewards on Lewis Hamilton impeding penalty
The stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.
Car 44 was on a slow lap and off the racing line as he was approaching Turn 2. Car 1 was approaching Car 44 on a push lap.
The team first informed the driver of Car 44 that Car 1 was on a fast lap. Then they sent another message saying that Car 1 was ‘slowing down’ when in fact Car 1 was always on a push lap and was not ‘slowing down’ as suggested by the team.
This resulted in Car 44 speeding up and moving into the racing line of Car 1 entering Turn 3. Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1.
We carefully examined the racing line taken by Car 1 in previous laps at the same area and determined that Car 44 did in fact enter the racing line that Car 1 used in previous push laps. This put it beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded.
The driver of Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the team immediately after the incident.
During the hearing, the fact of the team’s incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of Car 44.
As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor. We therefore impose the standard penalty of a drop of three grid positions
