24/05/2025 19:40
The FIA stewards have explained why they opted to hand Lewis
Hamilton a three-place grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix
Hamilton ended qualifying in fourth place, which was set to be his
highest starting grid position of the season. However, he was
forced to visit the stewards after impeding Max Verstappen during
Q1 while the Red Bull driver was on a fast lap. Both drivers
advanced into the next stage of qualifying and eventually qualified
in fourth and fifth respectively. Hamilton was bumped back to
seventh following a deliberation from the stewards, who accepted
the seven-time champion wasn't solely to blame as Ferrari informed
their driver that Verstappen was not pushing. "Car 44 was on a slow
lap and off the racing line as he was approaching Turn 2," read a
statement from the stewards. "Car 1 was approaching Car 44 on a
push lap. The team first informed the driver of Car 44 that Car 1
was on a fast lap. Then they sent another message saying that Car 1
was 'slowing down' when in fact Car 1 was always on a push lap and
was not 'slowing down' as suggested by the team. "This resulted in
Car 44 speeding up and moving into the racing line of Car 1
entering Turn 3. "Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move
into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the
usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1. We
carefully examined the racing line taken by Car 1 in previous laps
at the same area and determined that Car 44 did in fact enter the
racing line that Car 1 used in previous push laps. This put it
beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded." Despite accepting Hamilton
was not at fault as he received incorrect information, the stewards
could not ignore circumstance created by Ferrari. "The driver of
Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the
team immediately after the incident. "During the hearing, the fact
of the team's incorrect message leading to the incident was
accepted by the driver of Car 44. "As with previous incidents of
this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete
information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the
radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a
mitigating factor."
