F1 stewards make Lewis Hamilton Penalty decision ‘ pushing and hitting rival

Lewis Hamilton finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ninth with just two points to show for his weekend’s work, but faced a post-race investigation for his clash with Pierre Gasly

Lewis Hamilton avoided a penalty after Pierre Gasly accused the Brit of “pushing and hitting” him during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The incident happened just 16 laps into the season finale. Hamilton was bearing down on the Alpine ahead of him who seemed to be buckling under the pressure that was being put upon him.

Gasly locked up a wheel going into turn six which presented the Mercedes driver with an opportunity to overtake. But the lock-up meant the Alpine was in a strange position on the road and, despite braking, the seven-time world champion was unable to avoid contact.

The Alpine was not harmed in the slightest by the extremely light touch. Hamilton’s front wing endplate bent out of shape, making him appear even worse.

Gasly continued to complain on the radio despite this. He told his team, “He pushed me, hit me,” and Hamilton immediately took to the radio to say, “I just damaged my front wing.” He locked up before I did.

The stewards received the incident from race control and decided to look into it more. But after some consideration, they came to the conclusion that Hamilton did not deserve to be punished and that further action was not necessary.

The official decision document stated as follows: “Car 44 [Hamilton] driver clearly did not anticipate that Car 10 [Gasly] would lock its front right tire into Turn Six, causing that car to approach the turn on a slightly different line at a slightly slower speed.

“During the turn, Car 10’s rear and Car 44’s made slight contact. The stewards conclude that no driver was primarily or entirely at fault, so no further action is necessary.”

A few laps after the incident, with the endplate flapping in the turbulence, Hamilton pulled into the pits for a new set of tires. However, the team decided it was safe to proceed and would not significantly impair his car’s performance, so the front wing was left alone.

The British athlete appeared sullen when he addressed the media following the race, obviously not overly thrilled with his ninth-place finish. However, they were important points for the team because Mercedes managed to hold off Ferrari’s challenge on the last day of racing to finish second in the constructors’ championship, three points ahead of them.