D-Day for Hamilton

Oct 05

Hamilton: no penalty

I did the best job I could under extremely difficult circumstances with the rain, and I did the best job I could to stay out of everyone else’s way

Lewis Hamilton
Quotes of the week

Stewards at the Chinese Grand Prix have cleared Lewis Hamilton of dangerous driving in last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

The 22-year-old world championship leader was called by FIA officials following Friday practice to give his account of the incident last weekend at Fuji which resulted in the retirements of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton eventually scored his fourth win of the season in the wet race, with his championship lead over team-mate Fernando Alonso extended to 12 points following the latter’s accident on lap 42

With the safety car deployed following Alonso’s shunt, Webber and Vettel – placed second and third behind Hamilton – collided, with the lion’s share on the blame initially aimed at the 20-year-old German.

Footage

The emergence of footage filmed from the grandstand and posted on the YouTube website prompted the stewards’ investigation.

The footage – since removed from the site – was brought to the attention of the FIA by Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost and shows race leader Hamilton pulling to the right-hand side of the track behind the safety car and slowing considerably.

Webber was subsequently forced to slow – with the following Vettel then driving straight into the back of the Australian’s car.

Vettel has already been handed a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s race, and Hamilton had been facing the prospect of a similar sanction – or even the loss of the 10 points he picked up for victory.

However, after Hamilton, Webber and Vettel were called by stewards to explain the incident, the decision not to penalise the former sees him heading into the weekend with renewed hope of clinching the title on Sunday.