Verstappen and Hamilton among those cleared by Mexico stewards

No further action is to be taken against four of the Formula 1 drivers hauled before the stewards after various incidents in Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying.

George Russell, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Logan Sargeant and Yuki Tsunoda were required to see the stewards after alleged rules breaches.

Russell, Verstappen and Alonso were called for possible breaches of Article 37.5 of the Sporting Regulations over impeding other cars in the pit-exit during Q1.

In their investigations, the stewards found that the root cause of the drivers backing up was a direct result of the minimum lap time introduced between the two Safety Car lines by the Race Director, Niels Wittich.

The stewards noted that there are "contrary requirements" drivers face in that they must respect the minimum time, while attempting to create "manageable" gaps to cars ahead while avoiding stopping "unnecessarily" in the pit exit.

Wittich himself noted these contrary requirements with all parties in agreement that it is better to have the potential backing up of cars in the pit-exit than the potentially dangerous "large speed differences" on track.

With this is mind, no further action was taken, although the stewards did not that it would be "desirable" for a solution to be found for the pit-exit problem.

As for the yellow flag infringements for Hamilton, he was cleared after it was found he went slower in the mini-sector than on his previous push lap and that the light panel was blank over two pulses of a yellow flag.

Elsewhere, Zhou Guanyu's Alfa Romeo was fined €500 for speeding in the pit-lane by 4.1kph.

Sargeant and Williams were not so lucky, however, incurring big penalties for their rules breaches.