Hamilton qualified in second place for the delay in the opening of the F1 season of F1 at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday, narrowly losing pole to teammate Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes.
Hamilton managed to improve on his last lap in qualifying despite a turn for Bottas ahead that saw the Finnish driver kick some gravel.
FIA delegates in Austria revealed two hours after the end of qualifying that Hamilton was being investigated for failing to slow down because of the yellow flags displayed for Bottas, as well as a possible violation of track limits in the curve. 10 on his fastest lap.
Hamilton will appear before the stewards at 6:15 p.m. local time in Austria, but he risks a grid penalty after improving a tenth of a second on his final qualifying lap.
When asked at the post-qualification press conference by Motorsport.com if he saw the yellow flags displayed for Bottas, Hamilton replied, “Not that I saw him, no.
“I got around the corner, went up to power and thought that Valtteri might just open up and get back on track later on the road.”
“I was looking for gravel on the track and a car on the track, but there was nothing there, so I continued.
“Then I saw when I was going in, I think it was at turn 6 that Valtteri was much further to the left. It happened quite fast and quite big.”
Stewards issued guidelines on eliminating lap times for breaching track limits earlier in the weekend after removing curbs at the exit of Turn 9 and Turn 10.
Hamilton suffered a three-place penalty last year in Austria after preventing Kimi Raikkonen during qualifying.
The usual penalty for not slowing down the yellow flags is a three-place drop, as seen with Max Verstappen in Mexico last year.
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