LEWIS Hamilton has kept his victory of the German GP after surviving a lengthy post-race investigation into his aborted pit lane entry during the race. After summoning the Mercedes driver, the stewards found Hamilton guilty of breaking the regulations but opted to hand him a reprimand rather than a time penalty. Hamilton was investigated over his aborted entry into the pit lane after title rival Sebastian Vettel had crashed out. Hamilton returned to the track by slithering over the grass to take the lead of the grand prix after Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, who had held track position ahead of him, had pitted.
“It’s the most emotional day, up and down,” said Hamilton, who won from 14th on the grid. “No one ever wants to go and see the stewards, they have the hardest job because every scenario is always different, but this has just been an unbelievable day.” Although Hamilton was adjudged to have committed an offence, the stewards’ official verdict revealed he had escaped a stiffer penalty because: — ‘The driver and the team candidly admitted the mistake and the fact there was confusion within the team as to whether to stay out or to enter the pits and that led to the infringement.’ — ‘The fact that the infringement took place during a Safety Car period.’ — ‘At no time was there any danger to any other competitor and the change in direction was executed in a safe way.’
Summing up, the stewards concluded: ‘Taking all of the above into account, including considering previous infringements of the above rule, we are of the opinion that a reprimand would be the appropriate penalty for the said infringement on this occasion.’ Giving an insight in what he said to the stewards, Hamilton said: “Many times in the past I was in there a lot, but I hardly ever see them now and respect the rules and respect the job that they have to do. I was just open and said ‘this is how it was’. They could see and hear how confusing it [the pit situation] was.” Hamilton was running third when Bottas was called into the pits after the Safety Car was deployed, and seemed to be stopping himself before receiving a radio message from Mercedes and swerving back onto track. “I started turning in, then they asked me to box and then I said ‘Kimi (Raikkonen) is pitting’ and then they said ‘Stay out’ and I was already in the lane!” Hamilton explained before his penalty was confirmed.
“So I started turning out and trying to go over the grass and then they said ‘no, stay in!’ and I was already back on track!” Hamilton said he was trying to do the opposite to Raikkonen, the Ferrari driver in front of him after Vettel’s crash. He added: “The reason I was mentioning it was because there were times when you do the opposite to the car in front and I really felt that this was a chance to do the opposite to Kimi and gain ground on the road. So that’s why I questioned it an ultimately it turned out to be the right thing. “But it was so intense! It was really confusing because they were all panicking on the pit wall, I was probably the only relaxed one! They were shouting ‘yes, no, come in, don’t come in’. It was exciting! It’s cool to see how much they care and to see them on the edge of their seats.”
Hamilton later added: “I don’t know if you heard the radio after, but I was like ‘guys, that was the most confusing couple of seconds!’ because they were shouting in my ear ‘no left, no right’. But I think it was still relatively exciting.”
