Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll have been to the stewards at the F1 Monaco GP as both drivers found themselves in the spotlight for Q1 incidents.
Hamilton allegedly impedes Verstappen; Stroll allegedly blocks Gasly in F1 Monaco GP qualifying
As is always the case in Q1, traffic is tough to navigate for all drivers and engineers as they look to get a clear lap and not impede anyone else while on an out lap or a cool down one.
On the run up towards to Massenet in Q1, Verstappen was on a push attempt and got baulked by Hamilton who was on a cool down lap and on the racing line. Less than ideal communication from the Brit’s race engineer Riccardo Adami did not help the seven-time World Champion’s cause at all.
Down at turn 10, Lance Stroll impeded Pierre Gasly who was on a fast lap in Q1. As he came out of the tunnel and was about to get on the brakes for the Nouvelle Chicane, the French driver found the Canadian wandering back towards the racing line in a similar fashion to what he did against Charles Leclerc in practice that earned him a grid drop.
Hamilton demoted three spots on the F1 Monaco GP grid
After a long discussion, the stewards handed Lewis Hamilton a three-place grid drop for the Monaco GP, putting him down to P7 on the grid. Verstappen P4, Hadjar P5 and Alonso P6 is now the order behind the top 3.
“Car 44 [Hamilton] was on a slow lap and off the racing line as he was approaching Turn 2. Car 1 [Verstappen] was approaching Car 44 on a push lap. The team first informed the driver of Car 44 that Car 1 was on a fast lap. Then they sent another message saying that Car 1 was ‘slowing down’ when in fact Car 1 was always on a push lap and was not ‘slowing down’ as suggested by the team.
“This resulted in Car 44 speeding up and moving into the racing line of Car 1 entering Turn 3. Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1.
“We carefully examined the racing line taken by Car 1 in previous laps at the same area and determined that Car 44 did in fact enter the racing line that Car 1 used in previous push laps. This put it beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded. The driver of Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the team immediately after the incident.
“During the hearing, the fact of the team’s incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of Car 44. As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor. We therefore impose the standard penalty of a drop of three grid positions.”
Lance Stroll gets a three-place grid penalty for F1 Monaco GP
The stewards took a dim view of the Canadian’s latest misjudgement and handed him a three-place penalty. Due to Ollie Bearman’s ten-place drop, he will start where he qualified in P19.
“Car 18 [Stroll] was informed that car 10 [Gasly] was arriving on a fast lap at turn 10. From the radio communications it appears that car 18 was not informed [or] reminded that car 44 [Hamilton] (whom car 18 had overtaken earlier in that lap) was also coming and that car 44 was going to overtake car 18.
“The driver of Car 18 assumed wrongly that there was only one car to be let by and when car 44 (which was not on a fast lap) went by him, he moved back to the racing line thereby impeding car 10 which was on a fast lap.
“During the hearing, the driver of car 18 stated that he could not tell the colour of the car that had overtaken him because of the position of the sun, which we accepted. He therefore wrongly assumed that there was no other car to be let by.”
