Lewis Hamilton has been a part of multiple controversies in his illustrious career in motorsport. At the early stages of his career, when he was a young emerging talent and had already won a championship title, the Briton was in the bad books of the sport.
One of the many examples of his controversies is the time when Hamilton got disqualified after he lied to the stewards.
At the opening race of the 2009 season in Australia, Hamilton got into trouble with the then steward Charlie Whiting for deliberately misleading the results of the race.
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Safety car drama that made Lewis Hamilton a liar
As the last safety car period was underway, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli who was running P3 went off the track. Hamilton, driving a McLaren, who was following Trulli in P4, passed his Toyota behind the safety car.
Since no overtaking is allowed during the safety car period, this caused a bit of chaos over the radio. Hamilton informed his race engineer of what had happened and he was told to let Trulli’s Toyota through despite knowing the ‘no overtaking rules’.
Hamilton slowed down and Trulli successfully passed him on the track behind the safety car. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s team were communicating with Whiting about the incident and was trying to figure out the required action.
The McLaren driver who had just let Trulli pass voiced his opinion to his engineer and said, “I don’t have to let him pass I should be able to take that position back if he made a mistake.”
Hamilton disqualified
After the race, Hamilton was questioned by the press about the incident and he said that he was ordered by the team to let Trulli pass. So he did.
But later when the stewards called the concerned drivers and engineers for investigation, Hamilton told them that no such conversation had taken place between him and his engineers on the radio.
Following this, Trulli was found guilty and was slapped with a 25-second penalty.
After a week’s investigation into the matter, the FIA found that the information provided by McLaren was deliberately misleading to the stewards and was therefore disqualified
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