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Lewis Hamilton’s controversial punishments at the Russian GP were not so surprising for Mercedes. The sanctions applied to the championship leader were due to training pre-race starts in irregular places, under the direction of Mercedes. The problem is that the team did not see where Hamilton did the first practice start and, when he realized where the Englishman did the second practice, he felt that the stewards could punish him, following engineer Andrew Shovlin.
+ Championship standings
+ Bottas wins after punishment to Hamilton
Hamilton on board: the Englishman does the training in the wrong place and commits the second offense (7:35 am local time) – Photo: Playback / FOM
– We didn’t see the first practice. And when we saw the second one, we thought, “They’re not going to like this.” But we didn’t think it was dangerous. And since the event notes said the venue was on the right hand side after exiting the pit, we thought it might be ambiguous enough to get a reprimand. When we looked at the position of the car, it wasn’t a total surprise that they didn’t like it. And without a doubt there may be teams that signaled as much as if the FIA or the commissioners themselves did, Shovlin told the “Autosport” website.
+ Flying Low discusses Hamilton’s penalties
+ English says they are trying to “stop” it
Bottas wins the Russian GP after punishing Hamilton; Luciano Burti’s comments
Shovlin also explained that teams and drivers always try to find the most suitable place to start training, in order to more accurately simulate the grip of the starting place. In each circuit, the locations allowed to start the simulations at the exit of the pits are different:
– In some places there is a box that they paint on the floor and you have to do that in the box. In other places, it is a general area. And generally, if there is a lot of rubber, it will not represent the grid. Drivers and engineers alike will want to find a bit more grip than can be expected on the grid. And all that happened was Lewis asked if he could go further. We had not realized how far it would go. But it’s really just trying to find some asphalt that looks more like what you’ll get when you get off to a good start.
Video of Lewis Hamilton’s irregular start practice at the Russian GP
Lewis Hamilton took two penalties of five seconds each, a total of ten, for each practice session in an irregular place. With that, he finished the race in third position, behind winner Valtteri Bottas and runner-up Max Verstappen. The loss of the victory meant that Hamilton (pole position and race start leader) lost the opportunity to match Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories. Lewis’ next chance will be in two weeks, at the Nürburgring, at the Eifel GP.
