Hamilton keeps pole, avoids further track limit penalty

Lewis Hamilton will not face any further action for the way in which he exceeding track limits during qualifying for the 2020 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.

Hamilton hd been summoned to see the race stewards for the way that he went off track during his first two runs in the first round of the session. He had told Sky Sports F1 at the time: "I think it should be okay."

Earlier in the day, race director Michael Masi had issued new instructions to all teams and drivers about how they should handle turn 2.

• Real also: Hamilton survives to snatch Sochi pole from Verstappen

The guidance read: "Each time any car fails to negotiate turn 2 by using the track, and who passes to the left of, or has any part of the car over the first orange kerb element prior to the apex, or to the left of the orange apex sausage at Turn 2, must then re-join the track by driving around the array of blocks as indicated by the arrows before the re-joining the track at turn 3.”

Hamilton did not follow these revised rules. Replayed showed that he failed to return to the track by driving between the blocks after cutting the corner and his left-hand wheels ran over the orange kerb during Q1.

Other drivers who also failed to adhere to the instructions were Williams' Nicholas Latifi and Haas pair Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. All four were summoned to the stewards office after the and of qualifying.

All four drivers had already had their respective lap times deleted for the infringement. The stewards decided that while they had broken the rules, no further punishment was warranted as their respective offending laps had already been deleted during the course of the session.

"The driver left the track at turn 2 and did not manage to re-join the track as defined in the Event Notes (v3) 22.1," the official statement read.

"The driver accepted that he had not followed the instructions and further he accepted that in a race there would be a penalty.

"The Stewards determined that there was no advantage, as the relevant lap time was deleted according to Doc 27.

"Furthermore, to be consistent with previous decisions, the Stewards considered the precedents set out in Doc. 25 of the 2018 Spanish Gran Prix and Doc. 31 of the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix."

Hamilton also ran wide at the same corner in Q2. However on this occasion, the Mercedes did return to the track in the manner laid out by the FIA.

He still had his lap time deleted at the time for exceeding track limits, and this nearly cost him a chance of making it through to the final round of qualifying when there was a subsequent red flag for Sebastian Vettel crashing.

Hamilton eventually set a lap time and progressed to Q3, where he set a new track record and clinched pole position for tomorrow's race ahead of Max verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.

The stewards have reiterated that anyone not following the rules in tomorrows race could find themselves handed a five second time penalty.

"The Stewards remind all teams and drivers, that a failure to negotiate turn 2 as defined in the Event Notes during the race will likely lead to a 5 sec time penalty."

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