Lewis Hamilton drove out of the garage at the Austrian Grand Prix and appeared to hit a wheel jack, which got Mercedes into hot water with the F1 stewards.
Following Lewis Hamilton’s car’s release in an unsafe condition during the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, Mercedes was fined by the FIA.
The incident took place during the practice session as the British competitor battled for the best starting position at the Red Bull Ring. As he exited the Mercedes garage and entered the pit lane, a wheel jack remained fixed to his vehicle, which the television cameras captured on camera.
It was soon announced that following the session, the stewards would investigate the matter. And they have now verified that the team will receive a £4,250 fine as the appropriate punishment.
“Car 44 [Hamilton] was released from the garage in an unsafe manner dragging a jack and an exhaust extractor behind it,” they wrote in an official decision document. The stewards acknowledge that the driver was promptly notified by the team to stop in order to avoid any additional damage and/or hazardous situations.”
Since Hamilton was not at fault for the incident, he did not incur a sporting penalty for breaking the rule. This implied that he would not risk losing his fifth-place grid spot, which he had earned with the fastest lap of the session.
Pole-position finisher Max Verstappen also escaped punishment after being looked into for a different offense. Despite dominating qualifying, the Red Bull racer faced criticism for “driving unnecessarily slowly” at the end of the pit lane during the event.
The panel of stewards determined that no additional action against the Dutchman was required after looking over the video evidence. “The stewards determine that in this instance, no other car was directly affected by this in their attempts to set a lap time,” they wrote, “despite the fact that Car 1 [Verstappen] exited the pits slowly and made up a gap of approximately 14 seconds to the car in front of him.”
Furthermore, it was observed that at this moment, other cars were leaving comparable gaps in the track. The stewards advise that a maximum gap time be established during qualifying, though, since this kind of incident may in certain cases prohibit other drivers from recording a lap time at the conclusion of a session.”
Lando Norris, who was beaten to pole by his competitor this Sprint weekend for the second time, will start alongside Verstappen on the front row of the grid. Oscar Piastri did manage to record a lap fast enough to take third place, but the Australian was demoted to seventh after the lap was removed due to an alleged infraction of the track limits.
Nevertheless, it remained unclear from TV replays whether his McLaren car had crossed the white line that marked the track’s edge entirely. Consequently, McLaren has attempted to have that lap restored by filing an official protest against the session’s outcome.
