Hamilton’s weekend went from a Qualifying fiasco to an unprecedented race win at Hockenheim today, but his race victory was marred by a pit entry issue, one that led to him being summoned by the stewards post the race.
Hamilton was able to take advantage of the wet conditions and of Vettel crashing because of pushing his car a little too hard.
However, the stewards summon caused a massive dark cloud to hover around Hamilton’s race win, one that could have been taken away from him, if the stewards had decided to go ahead with the 5 second penalty that was awarded to Kimi Raikkonen in Baku in 2016(for a similar incident).
The stewards have taken a decision, with Hamilton being reprimanded for the incident, but not having to give up his German GP win.
Following is the statement from the stewards regarding the incident.
“In deciding on the penalty for the infringement, we took into account the following mitigating factors.
“(i) The driver and the team candidly admitted the mistake and the fact that there was confusion within the team as to whether to stay out or to enter the pits and that led to the infringement.
“(ii) The fact that the infringement took place during a Safety Car period.
“(iii) At no time was there any danger to any other competitor and the change in direction was executed in a safe way.
“Taking all of the above into account, including considering previous infringements of the above rule, we are of the opinion that a reprimand would be the appropriate penalty for the said infringement on this occasion.” the statement read.
What do you think about the decision?
