Hamilton Cleared After Impeding; Aston Martin Hit with Two Pit Lane Fines

Lewis Hamilton avoided a penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in qualifying after Alpine agreed he had not been held up by the Ferrari driver.

However, the stewards fined Aston Martin a total of €12,500 (£10,700) for two operational failures during qualifying.

The stewards took no further action against Hamilton after speaking to him and a representative from Alpine.

“The driver of car 44 [Hamilton] explained that he was under the impression that car 10 [Gasly] was not on a push lap, and his team confirmed that it had the same opinion,” the stewards noted. “The driver and team representative of car 10 stated they did not consider this to be a case of ‘unnecessary impeding’. The stewards therefore determined to take no further action.”

The stewards also cleared Lance Stroll of impeding Nico Hülkenberg. They accepted Stroll’s explanation for not moving out of the way, and Audi agreed their driver had not been impeded.

“The driver of car 18 [Stroll] advised that he saw car 27 [Hülkenberg] approaching but knew that he did not have the power at that stage of the lap to move ahead quickly,” the stewards noted. “He also believed that if he tried to move off the racing line (i.e. to the left) he would risk loss of control because he had previously run onto the grass at a prior turn, and that, combined with the track on the left being ‘dirty’, would not have provided sufficient traction.

“The driver of car 27 (via written submission) and the team representative of car 27 both agreed that this was not a case of ‘unnecessary impeding’.”

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However, the stewards were critical of two separate incidents involving Aston Martin. They ruled the team released Stroll’s car from the pits in an unsafe condition with wheel covers still fitted; those covers later detached and fell onto the track. They also concluded Fernando Alonso’s AMR26 was released into the path of another driver during the session.

The incident with Stroll resulted in a €7,500 fine. The stewards noted two parts detached from the car.

“On its way down the pit lane at the start of the session, car 18 lost an outer wheel trim,” the stewards ruled. “Then, on its first lap, the inner wheel cover also dislodged. Although this part is made from carbon fibre, it is potentially dangerous if it hit another car or a person.

“The driver was not aware of the situation and the team admitted that part of its inspection process had overlooked the correct fixation of the securing devices for these pieces. The team undertook to thoroughly review its inspection process. The penalty is higher than for a standard unsafe release because the car was on the track when the second piece dislodged.”

The stewards also found Alonso’s car had been released unsafely at the start of Q1, forcing Franco Colapinto to take evasive action. The team received an additional €5,000 fine for that release.

“It was apparent that car 43 [Colapinto] had to swerve and locked the front wheels to avoid a collision with car 14 [Alonso],” the stewards noted. “This was determined by the Stewards to be an unsafe release.”

The stewards reprimanded Sergio Perez for failing to follow the race director’s instructions at turn 13 by not moving to the right to allow others past. They did not, however, make a determination on whether he impeded Alonso, who had complained about Perez’s actions.

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