Lewis Hamilton under investigation for not slowing down during yellow flags in Austrian GP qualifying and could face grid penalties for raceday.
The Mercedes have been dealt with a shocker, after a near perfect weekend at the Austria Grand Prix so far. Their star driver Lewis Hamilton has been summoned by the F1 race stewards to address two race breaches at qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton under investigation for 2 offences
Lewis Hamilton finished on second position for tomorrow’s final race, behind his teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.012 secs. This happened after the latter went off the tracks in his final lap, which led to yellow flags been shown.
But Lewis seems to have ignored it as he was just passing by behind Bottas. He went to improve his timing and finish P2 on the grid.
To make things worse, he has reportedly also been questioned for another breach. This one if for breaching race tracks limits at turn 10 of that lap.
Hamilton is investigated. “Allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags between turns 5 and 7” in Q3#AMuS
— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) July 4, 2020
If the stewards rule against him, he could find his last and best lap time deleted altogether. As for the first breach, he could potentially be handed a three-place grid penalty. That would enable last year’s winner here Max Verstappen to line up in the front grid alongside Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton with the case of the defense
Hamilton, on his part, denied any wrongdoing knowingly. He had this to say at the post-qualifying press conference.
“Not that I saw, no (yellow flags).”
“I came round the corner, I got on the power and I thought that Valtteri perhaps had just gone wide and come back on the track further up the road.
“I was looking out for the gravel on the track and for a car on the track, but there was nothing there so I continued.
This does spice things up even more after a fantastic round of qualifying at the Red Bull Ring. It remains to be seen who comes out trumps at the Final Race in the Austrian GP tomorrow.
