[ad_1]
(Reuters) – Mercedes knew Lewis Hamilton was going to get in trouble with the Formula One stewards when they saw where he was practicing his starts for the Russian Grand Prix, according to engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
The six-time world champion, on pole position in Sochi on Sunday, received two five-second penalties and finished third in a race won by his teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Penalties put his attempt to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories on hold and cut his championship lead to 44 points.
Hamilton had asked Mercedes on the way to the grid if he could practice the exits further from the pit lane, where there was less discarded rubber, and was told to continue.
“We hadn’t realized how far he was going to go,” Shovlin said.
“We didn’t see the first one. When we saw the second we thought ‘they are not going to like it’.
“We thought it might have been ambiguous enough that they would have scolded us. But when we looked at the position of the car, it wasn’t a surprise that they didn’t like it.”
Shovlin said rivals could also have pointed it out to the ruling FIA or stewards as well as to officials who spotted it themselves.
Hamilton, surprised by the sanctions, later told reporters that he did not believe he had done anything out of the ordinary.
“If you look at probably all the races I’ve done this year, at least I always start lower. I never, never had a problem, I did it for years,” he said.
“I don’t like being on the rubber, that’s where everyone has done all their starts, so it’s not representative of what it’s like on the grid, so I try to get to the surface that has no rubber.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, edited by Christian Radnedge)
[ad_2]
