Lewis Hamilton has received a reprimand from the FIA for impeding Haas driver Nikita Mazepin in FP3 while a €25,000 fine has been levied upon the Mercedes team.
Hamilton was running at a slow pace in Saturday's practice session and was nearly collected by the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly at one point.
But moments later, Mazepin barreled down on the seven-time world champion just as he exited a blind corner and was forced to take evasive action to avoid the Mercedes driver.
"The Race Director reported to the Stewards that the double yellow flag warning on the FIA Marshalling System was activated at Light Panel Number 6 accidentally, for less than 1 second," stated the stewards ruling.
"As the on-board video of Car 44 (to be released by the Commercial Rights Holder following this Decision) clearly shows, there was no yellow flag displayed, no yellow lights were displayed to that driver and the yellow warning light was not visible on the driver’s steering wheel.
"Unlike other incidents this year, there was no yellow flag or yellow light displayed to the driver (the driver already being well into the marshalling sector when the system was briefly activated) hence no breach of the regulations has occurred."
The stewards' ruling - which is Hamilton's second reprimand of the season - and the massive €25,000 fine clearly places most of the responsibility of the incident on the Mercedes pitwall that failed to timely warn Hamilton that Mazepin was fast approaching, a shortfall expressed by the Briton himself in the heat of the moment.
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