Lewis Hamilton has been reprimanded for failing to slow under double-waved yellow flags caused by his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in Brazilian Grand Prix sprint qualifying.
Hamilton was eliminated in the second part of Friday’s qualifying session and will start Saturday’s sprint race from 11th after avoiding a grid penalty despite being found by the stewards to have breached the rules.
The seven-time world champion was unfortunate to encounter a very short double-waved yellow while in sector two when Leclerc briefly spun exiting Turn 10.
Hamilton appeared to barely slow in reaction to the incident and went faster in that mini-sector of the track, but did not improve his overall laptime.
He said in his stewards’ hearing that he did not see the light panels that were activated on the left-hand side of the track just as he was turning into the right-hander, which the stewards said “was only illuminated for a fraction of a second” before Hamilton passed it.
At that point, Hamilton was looking right through the corner. But he said during the hearing he saw Leclerc’s car, and a green light signal on the exit of the corner, so the stewards felt he “had to realise that he was at least in a yellow sector and as a consequence had to reduce speed discernibly”.
The telemetry assessed by the stewards revealed Hamilton hesitated while applying the throttle, “but did not reduce speed as required”.
For reasons of “consistency”, though, the stewards felt this merited a reprimand rather than the standard five-place grid penalty specified in officials’ guidelines, because of the specific circumstances.
“I'm 11th now, so just have to have some fun from there,” Hamilton said of his sprint prospects.
“I think at this point it's just about having fun. It's not going well from my side, my year.
“And I just have to enjoy it wherever I am, and see what I can do.”
