How Lewis Hamilton escaped major Brazil GP penalty as race footage scrutinised.
Despite waiting for five red lights in advance, Lewis Hamilton narrowly avoided a penalty during the Brazilian GP. As the Silver Arrows endured one of their worst weekends in recent memory, the Mercedes ace dropped three positions during the race to eventually finish eighth.
Footage from the start of the race showed Hamilton moving forward in his grid box before the lights went out, prompting calls on social media for him to be penalized for a false start. A foul is usually punished with a five or ten second penalty or a pass, depending on the advantage gained.
But the FIA decided not to penalize Hamilton as it was deemed that his slight move did not justify a false start as he stayed within the limits. To be penalized for a false start, the driver must leave the grid position before the lights go out by crossing the orange line to the left of the box.
Hamilton managed to avoid crossing the orange line by stopping the car quickly just before the start, which he endured in the pits. Therefore, he did not commit a crime because his early reaction did not cause a false start and he was therefore not punished.
That aside, it continued to be a desperately bad weekend for the Brit as he slipped down the order despite starting the race relatively strongly. He jumped to third, passing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll on the first lap, but was unable to maintain a steady pace and was passed by Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly before the checkered flag.
George Russell, on the other hand, was forced into early retirement when his power plant approached the point of failure and Mercedes decided to take him to the garage rather than run the car until the end. Toto Wolff was very critical of his team, calling their collective performance “unjustifiable” while trying to hide his disappointment.
“Absolutely terrible performance – you can’t even describe it,” said the Mercedes driver. – What we did with this car was terrible because it finished second both last week and the week before. Lewis got out of there alive, but George Considering how bad the situation is for these two drivers, I just feel bad.
“The car is on a cutting edge, which shows how difficult it is. We have to fix that next year because it’s not acceptable to be in the two fastest cars in seven days and not be anywhere.
