Lewis Hamilton has been given a fifth-place grid penalty against the Italian Grand Prix because he didn’t slow his speed down sufficiently under the yellow flag before the Dutch Grand Prix.
Race Director Louis Marquez imposed a double yellow flag section on the final corner due to the banked nature of the turn, as drivers with personnel on the grid could arrive at high speeds. Team members gather at the back of the grid to gather cars after pre-race reconnaissance, but the majority of drivers make multiple laps on the grid, resulting in a pit lane.
Hamilton twice found himself not slow enough in that sector, but the steward was unhappy with the speed to the pit lane, with the entry overlapping with the back of the grid. After a post-race investigation, he was punished next weekend at Ferrari’s home race at Monza.
“Due to the nature of the track, the race director informed all participants that a double yellow flag would be waving at the last corner before the pit lane, to ensure the safety of the people on the grid and pit lane.
“Regulations require drivers passing through the double-wave yellow flag marshaling sector to “slightly reduce speeds.” We examined available telemetry within the FIA system. They also requested that the team provide telemetry data.
“In addition, Article 44.1 requires that all drivers covering multiple reconnaissance laps drive pit entry loads at “a massively reduced speeds.”
“The data showed that the driver was in the double yellow sector about 20kph less than his speed at the same time in the actual session, reducing throttle applications in a 10% to 20% order, and lifting them 70 meters ahead and brakes them when they entered the pit lane.
“We didn’t expect a 20kph drop in speed in the double-wave yellow sector to be “a significant reduction.” They also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry load to be a “significantly” reduced speed. ”
The usual penalty for such a breaches is a reduction in grid positions of 10, but the steward took into account the fact that Hamilton made some attempt as a situation in which he attempted to reduce the speed.
Hamilton’s race failed to apply penalty as Zandvoort retired early and crashed after running wide on turn 3 in wet conditions.
