Mercedes believe Lewis Hamilton's second-place starting spot in the Brazilian Grand Prix is secure despite a possible Formula 1 start procedure infringement. During the Sprint race in Sao Paulo, news filtered through that Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu would be investigated for possible start infringements. However, none of the trio jumped the start, with car positioning the factor that they could be investigated for. After reviewing footage, Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin was sure that the British driver would not lose what would be his first front-row start of the season.
Shovlin on Hamilton penalty
"I wasn't talking to Race Control, but they said they'd defer the decision until after the Sprint race," Shovlin explained to Sky Sports F1. "It may be linked to positioning in the box, but we've got the onboard and it looks like we're very conservative in where we positioned the car in terms of the line. "It might have been a sensor issue, I don't know, but from the image we've seen, there doesn't look to be any hint that we were outside the box." Mercedes secured their first front-row lockout of the season during the race with George Russell starting P1, with Hamilton alongside. And Shovlin says the result was "the best we could possibly hope for." "I think a lot of it was down to the Medium tyre [that Max Verstappen started on], and a great recovery drive from Lewis. "It's been a while since we've had a front row start. "We know that George knows how to race, it was nice to give him a car this weekend where he could show what he can do right at the front - Max is always a difficult guy to be up against - but it was a really impressive drive by him."
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