Hamilton penalty spotlights F1 at shambolic worst
LEWIS HAMILTON was handed a three-place grid penalty for the Austrian Grand Prix and will, as logic dictates, move back two places. Work that out?
Don’t even bother to try, but this unfathomable equation was the shambles perplexing a sport under fire under the Styrian mountains yesterday.
First, the FIA, the governing body, said Hamilton would be moved back three places. Then, having looked again at their own rule book, they decided this was not the case and moved him two back instead. This absurdity was confirmed more than four hours after qualifying. The explanation, it seems, is that Hamilton’s penalty was applied before Haas’s Kevin Magnussen’s own sanction — he qualified fifth but has been hit by a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. Leave that aside, world champion Hamilton was deemed to have impeded Kimi Raikkonen during qualifying, hence his punishment. He will be behind a host of nextgeneration youngsters in a topsy-turvy line-up.
On the front row are Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took his second pole, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Both are 21 — the youngest front row in history. Valtteri Bottas is third for Mercedes.
Lando Norris, the 19-year-old from Somerset, is fifth for McLaren.
‘I’m going to fight the young drivers, they’re so talented,’ said Hamilton, 34. ‘I’m representing the old guys.’
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel qualified 10th but will start ninth with little chance of making any inroads into his 76-point deficit to Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.
Hamilton, who leads Bottas by 46 points going into today’s ninth round of the 21-race season, was called to the stewards for obstructing Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen while the Finn was on a fast lap early in qualifying.
Raikkonen was incensed by the incident at Turn Three and flashed a finger at Hamilton in protest.
‘Hamilton totally blocked me,’ complained Raikkonen over the radio.