Yuki Tsunoda has been penalised but Lance Stroll has escaped sanction in the stewards verdict into impeding against Lewis Hamilton in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying. In a wet/dry session at Zandvoort, Hamilton failed to advance through to Q3, falling in Q2 after overheating tyres meant he was not in a position to set a final lap when track conditions were at their best. The Mercedes driver rejected suggestions that Tsunoda's blocking at Turn 13 had an any impact on his elimination, but the stewards still called the AlphaTauri driver to see them. In the verdict which handed Tsunoda a three-place grid drop, the stewards found that he was "on the dry racing line at the exit of Turn 13 preparing for his fast lap" but was not yet up to full racing speed when Hamilton arrived. The Japanese racer explained that he had let another car past and wanted to make a gap, but the stewards felt he could have moved off the racing line, and as a result, unnecessarily impeded Hamilton. Tsunoda drops down from the 14th in which he qualified to 17th. As for Stroll, the Aston Martin driver was found to have impeded Hamilton as he was beginning his own fast lap. However, as the Aston was getting up to speed, it was found that Stroll's "behaviour did not rise to the level of unnecessarily impeding" that is required for a penalty to be issued as per the sporting regulations. Stroll maintains his 11th place on the grid with Hamilton set to now be joined by Nico Hulkenberg on the seventh row in 13th and 14th following Tsunoda's penalty.
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