Hamilton escapes penalty for red flag breach in FP3

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Lewis Hamilton was left off the hook by the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stewards after the latter's investigation into a red flag infringement in FP3.

A red flag was deployed in the final practice session following the presence of debris on the track. The stewards noted that Hamilton had passed both Lando Norris and Kevin Magnussen, with the McLaren driver alerting his team over the radio of the Mercedes charger's potentially offensive action.

But the stewards' investigation focused on Hamilton's overtake of the Haas driver.

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"There is no dispute that Car 44 passed Car 20 directly after the track was placed in a Red Flag condition," said the FIA officials.

"The driver of Car 44 stated that he was on a fast lap, he saw the Red Light, immediately completely lifted the throttle and applied the brakes, whilst checking his mirrors for cars following in close proximity. He stated that he had, in doing so, gone past Car 20.

"The Stewards took note of the precedent in relation to the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix (Max Verstappen), where no action was taken against the driver under similar but not identical circumstances.

"The telemetry evidence was sourced directly from the live data available to the FIA not from any evidence provided by the team.

"It is our conclusion that the driver of Car 44 took every reasonable action to comply with the regulations in that he immediately reduced speed in a safe manner at the earliest opportunity upon the first indication of the red light.

"Notwithstanding, technically this is still a breach of Art 2.5.4.1 b of Cpt IV of Appendix H of the International Sporting Code, however he could not avoid overtaking Car 20 in this case and therefore the Stewards DETERMINE to apply no penalty."

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