Not so fast, Lewis

Hamilton stripped of F1 pole over fuel faux pas

BARCELONA

— Lewis Hamilton’s spectacular but often controversial career suffered a new twist Saturday when he was stripped of pole for the Spanish Grand Prix because his Mclaren team failed to give him enough fuel.

As a result, Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado of Williams will start from pole position for the first time after being promoted from second on the grid while Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, will start from the back.

The 27-year-old Briton was excluded from the qualifying results because he did not return to the pits with his Mclaren car after setting his fastest lap.

Instead, he followed urgent orders transmitted by the team and stopped out on the track. He required assistance to return to the pits where a one litre fuel sample

was to be taken.

A stewards’ meeting later decided that this was in breach of the regulations and excluded Hamilton, dismissing his team’s argument that this had happened

under circumstances of force

majeure.

“This is such a disappointment. Today’s qualifying session was one of the best I’ve ever driven — the whole car was just rolling so smoothly, it felt fantastic,” said Hamilton.

“On my slowing-down lap, my engineers told me to stop on the track, and I didn’t know why. Later, to hear that I’d been excluded from qualifying, was of course extremely disappointing.

“It’s clear that it’s going to be an incredibly tough race. But as I always say, and as I always do, whatever grid position I start a Grand Prix from, I’ll always race my heart out.”

The race stewards rejected Mclaren’s argument that the incident was a case of force majeure.

“The stewards heard from the team representative Sam Michael who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force

majeure,” said a statement. “A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes.

“As the amount of fuel put into the car is under the complete control of the competitor, the stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure.”

Mclaren accepted the stewards’ decision. — Agence France-presse

“It’s clear that it’s going to be an incredibly tough race. But as I always say, and as I always do, whatever grid position I start a Grand Prix from, I’ll always race my heart out.”

ť LEWIS HAMILTON

MCLAREN F1 DRIVER