Lewis Hamilton is being handed a five-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix for failing to reduce his speed sufficiently under yellow flags prior to the Dutch Grand Prix.
Race director Rui Marques imposed a double waved yellow flag section at the final corner due to the banked nature of the turn that could lead to drivers arriving at high speed with personnel on the grid. Team members gather at the rear of the grid to collect cars after their reconnaissance laps pre-race, but the majority of drivers will do multiple laps to the grid and run through the pit lane as a result.
Hamilton was found to have not slowed sufficiently in that sector on two occasions, while the stewards were also unhappy with his speed into the pit lane – with the entry overlapping the rear of the grid. After a post-race investigation, he was penalized for Ferrari’s home race at Monza next weekend.
“Due to the nature of the track, the Race Director had informed all participants that the last corner before the pit lane would have double yellow flags waved. This was to ensure the safety of those on the grid and in the pit lane.
“The regulations require that any driver passing through a double waved yellow flag marshalling sector ‘reduce speed significantly…’ We looked through the available telemetry within the FIA system. We also requested the team to provide us with their telemetry data. All of this took some time and this decision was delayed as a result.
“In addition, Article 44.1 requires all drivers covering more than one reconnaissance lap to drive down the pit entry road at ‘greatly reduced speed.’
“The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10 percent to 20 percent and had lifted and braked 70 meters earlier when entering the pit lane.
“We did not consider that a 20kph reduction in speed at a double waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly.’ We also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry road as being at a ‘greatly’ reduced speed.”
The usual penalty for such an infringement is a drop of 10 grid positions, but the stewards deemed the fact that Hamilton had made some attempt to reduce his speed as mitigating circumstances, so only imposed a five-place grid penalty.
Any penalty could not be applied to Hamilton’s race result in Zandvoort as he retired early on, crashing out after running wide at Turn 3 in damp conditions.