Hamilton keeps pole following stewards' investigation

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has held on to his British Grand Prix pole position following a stewards investigation.

The Haas F1 Team complained that Romain Grosjean's qualifying lap had been held up by the Mercedes driver. They said that Grosjean has lost significant time after encountering a slow Hamilton in the last corner during Q3.

“Mercedes needs better GPS – unbelievable," a furious Grosjean said over the Haas team radio after the incident.

“My first run in Q3 was really good," he later told NBC Sports. "Very unhappy with my first attempt being completely ruined at the last corner.

"I got completely blocked by Hamilton in the last corner and lost a good three tenths," he said. He added that he could have finished at least one place higher on the grid if not for Hamilton's intervention.

The Briton said that he had been unaware of Grosjean's approach and that he had not been warned by the Mercedes pit wall.

Hamilton 'had no indication' of Grosjean's approach

"I think I just about got away without blocking him," said Hamilton. "I went as quick as I could - I don't know if I got in the way. If I did, I apologise."

The race stewards reviewed the incident immediately after the end of qualifying. They came to a quick conclusion within 30 minutes of the end of Q3.

The notice from the stewards said that the incident had been reviewed as alleged impeding by car 44 on car 8 in turn 16. That was a potential breach of Article 31.6 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

"The stewards examined video and telemetry evidence," the statement continued. "[They] concluded that while GRO may potentially have been affected by the presence of HAM at Turn 16, he was not impeded."

As a result, no further action will be taken. It confirms that Hamilton will start Sunday's race from pole position.

Kimi Raikkonen will start alongside him, with his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the second row.

Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas will start from ninth because of a five-place gearbox penalty. The second Red Bull also had a similar penalty. However, Daniel Ricciardo will sactually tart from the back of the grid after suffering a turbo failure early in qualifying.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.