Why Lewis Hamilton avoided a grid penalty in Brazil

Lewis Hamilton was called the see the F1 stewards in Brazil after sprint qualifying at the Interlagos Circuit.

The seven-time champion was already dealing with the setback of being eliminated at the end of SQ2 as he failed to reach the line in time to start a new lap.

Moments before, Hamilton had come across his stricken team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had spun on his final attempt.

The gap between Leclerc spinning and Hamilton arriving on the scene was short, meaning there was only a very brief period in which the yellow flag panel was visible to Hamilton.

Failing to slow for yellow flags can often result in a hefty grid drop, but on this occasion, the stewards simply issued Hamilton a reprimand, leaving his 11th place on the grid intact.

The stewards noted that Hamilton had little time to react to the situation, and understood his line of sight was not directed towards Leclerc's car.

Read the full stewards' statement below!

Stewards' statement in full

“Towards the end of Q2, Car 16 (LEC) spun at the exit of Turn 10, triggering double waved yellow flags,” read the statement. 

“Shortly afterwards, Car 44 (HAM) approached the same corner and was just turning in when the double yellow light panels were activated on the left-hand side of the track. 

“During the hearing, HAM explained that he did not see the light signal. The onboard footage confirms that the signal was only illuminated for a fraction of a second before HAM passed it. 

As the driver’s focus was clearly on the turn-in-point, he was looking to the right-hand side of the track, thus the Stewards find it credible that he did not actually perceive the signal. 

“However, HAM acknowledged during the hearing that he saw Car 16 (LEC) stationary at the side of the track and could see a green light signal being displayed beyond that point. He therefore had to realise that he was at least in a yellow sector and as a consequence had to reduce speed discernibly. 

“Looking into the telemetry, the Stewards found that the driver reacted by hesitating whilst applying the throttle, but did not reduce speed as required. 

“In similar circumstances in the past, the Stewards have deemed it appropriate to impose a reprimand rather than the standard five-place grid penalty specified in the guidelines. 

“In terms of consistency, the Stewards consider a reprimand to be sufficient in this case as well.”