Stewards awarded penalty points with “not 100 percent clarity” – Hamilton

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton believes the Russian Grand Prix stewards rescinded his two penalty points because they acted hastily by handing them out to begin with.

What they say

Hamilton was originally given two superlicense penalty points for his practice starts which the stewards ruled he performed in an unsafe place. These were rescinded after Hamilton and Mercedes team members met with the stewards after the grand prix. RaceFans asked what he said to them and why they changed their minds:

Naturally, everything that happens in that room is supposed to be private, so I can’t tell you what was said. I’m sure you can ask them why they changed their minds.

But I can imagine they they had so much going on at the beginning of the race with the start, with the incidents at the beginning, they cast the decision pretty quick with, I think not 100 percent clarity. So after re-looking at it, they realised that was not entirely correct. So they changed it.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

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Track, walked. Big coat, deployed. 📸 x Getty

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Comment of the day

Wsrgo asks why there is a desire to build new circuits, rather than refurbish and improve old or existing F1 tracks. Like, perhaps, the Nordschleife, if the management interview above is to be credited with and kind of sensible ambition…

Why is there such a push from F1 and FIA to construct new circuits, especially when there are already so many good ones that you can maybe refurbish and touch-up slightly to bring them up to Grand Prix standards?

If this Rio track comes through and there is a race in Saudi as well, I might find it hard to justify following a sport that pretends to care about greater issues only on the surface as long as it keeps their wallets happy. Cutting down forests and obliterating wild habitats will only exacerbate the chances of spreading of zoonotic diseases in the future, not to mention the whole host of other ecological and climate-related disasters that will follow.
Wsrgo

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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14 comments on “Stewards awarded penalty points with “not 100 percent clarity” – Hamilton”

  1. Re COTD, it’s hard to beat simplistic thinking when there is money to be made. Here in Oz we have politicians spruiking unregulated tree clearing on farms and grazing properties as a way of preventing wildfires.

    1. Pretty much this, yeah @hohum

    2. @hohum and politicians stickering up cars with “Black Coal Matters” and not seeing any issue with it.

  2. I really liked that article about Toto Wolff and how he the Norschleife put paid to his obsession with it. Lauda: I told you so. I think this might have been part of how the great cooperation between these two worked, they had this shared memory of a track that bites back.

    1. Indeed, that was a good read. The onboard video is pretty amazing viewing as well once you know the full story.

  3. Nordschleife would need quite a few adjustments for it to be safe enough for F1. Resurfacing, larger runoffs, etc.

    1. More marshalling posts! And crane access to remove cars stopped in awkward positions, and, and…. I think the management are being very “aspirational” about getting F1 back on the Nordschleife!

  4. Is Lewis drinking a can of rebdbull? :D

    1. No gasly is.

      1. Get some specs

  5. COTD: Yup. Much like the Olympic games (well, at least recently), there should be a clear sustainability program for F1 that covers the tracks. Instead of looking at how to maximise profit for some, take old venues into use and refurbish them a bit. Construction has a large environmental impact, and most often it is better to repair and renovate rather than build something new.

  6. If F1 cannot race in the Nordschleife for safety reasons how about a special qualifying only round there?

    Each driver gets 3 laps only and the rank is defined by the average of the 2 best laps. Pointing system can be the old 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

  7. Fia is pathetic.
    2 race wins stolen from Lewis.

    1. What things stolen?

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