Hamilton escapes penalty for Verstappen incident in Formula 1 FP2
Lewis Hamilton has escaped sanction for the way he rejoined the track and tripped up Max Verstappen during second practice at the French Grand Prix
The world championship leader briefly lost control of his Mercedes and swiped a bollard at Turn 4 exactly halfway through the second session.
But as he rejoined the circuit, he came back on track right in front of Verstappen, who was unable to take the ideal inside line at Turn 5 and ran wide.
Both drivers were summoned to see the stewards to explain their actions, but in the end it was decided that the incident warranted no action.
A statement issued by the stewards said: "The drivers agreed that the situation was not particularly dangerous and did not give Verstappen a lasting disadvantage in this Practice Session.
"Both drivers agreed that the limited rear visibility and the angle of Car 44 made it difficult for Hamilton to see the approaching car and agreed that Hamilton re-joined slowly.
"The Stewards could observe from the on-board video that Hamilton looked in his mirrors at least twice before attempting to re-join the circuit."
The decision to not take action on Hamilton came less than an hour after the stewards rejected a request from Ferrari for the FIA to review the decision to punish Sebastian Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix for a similar offence.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Why Audi and Verstappen have complicated Formula 1’s driver market decisions
‘Metronomic’ Verstappen may rule F1, but it won’t last forever - Horner
Why F1 2026 worst case fears could be key to new rules success
Hamilton "never had so much understeer in my life" in F1 Chinese GP
The 10 best Formula 1 drivers ever: Hamilton, Schumacher & more
The status factor that made Ferrari impossible for Hamilton to turn down
Brake issues hindered Rosenqvist’s chances of IndyCar victory in Long Beach
Ayrton Senna's famous Honda NSX up for sale
Yamaha to test completely new MotoGP bike at Jerez
Krack: Aston Martin frustrated by inconsistent F1 penalty decisions
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Why Verstappen's China F1 win was a sideshow to the real battle
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments