Verstappen and Hamilton cleared, penalties for Williams

A busy evening in the FIA stewards office ended up with Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell and other drivers being cleared of a variety of infractions, but penalties for Williams and driver Logan Sargeant.

Verstappen had been investigated after being seen to come to a crawl at the end of pit lane in the final minutes of the first round of today's qualifying session for the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

That resulted in considerable congestion behind him as cars jockeyed for the best track position in which to make their final flying lap run.

Russell and Alonso were also investigated for similar potential breaches related to Article 37.5 of the Sporting Regulations, which deals with impeding other cars during practice and qualifying sessions.

However the stewards found that the root cause of the drivers backing up was a direct result of the minimum lap-time introduced between the two safety car lines this weekend by race director Niels Wittich.

• Read also: Leclerc and Sainz ambush Verstappen for Mexico pole and front row

This had inadvertently placed "contrary requirements" on the drivers, asking them to respect the minimum time while attempting to create "manageable" gaps to cars ahead, and at the same time avoiding stopping "unnecessarily" at pit exit.

Wittich acknowledged that it had been preferable to have the cars backing up at pit exit rather than cause potentially dangerous "large speed differences" on the live track.

Russell had made a similar argument to the media before the stewards meeting. "When everybody comes out of the pits at the same point, it’s difficult to take a gap," he said.

"They ask us not to stop in the pit lane but if you don’t make a gap in the pit lane, you have to make it on track and it’s quite dangerous," he pointed out.

As a result it was agreed between all those involved that no further action would be taken. The stewards did dryly comment that it would be "desirable" for a solution to be found for dealing with such situations in future.

Russell, Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu had also been summoned to see the stewards exceeding the maximum delta time under yellow flags triggered by Alonso spinning on track, but the stewards accepted their reasons for doing so.

Lewis Hamilton was investigated for not slowing sufficiently under the yellow flags, but also escaped any sanction. “The onboard video clearly shows there is no light or flag displayed to car 44 on the straight into turn 1.

"Then a green light shows as he enters turn 2, which is followed by two pulses of a yellow light then moments later, the light panel is blank,” the ruling continued.

“The driver was slightly slower in the mini sector than on his previous push lap. Our determination is that there was no breach of the regulations.”

However there was no such mitigation in the case of Logan Sargeant who had been called to see the stewards over reports that he had overtaken Yuki Tsunoda under the yellow flags.

“[Sargeant] stated that he overtook [Tsunoda] because he appeared to be going slowly and also because he saw the green panel ahead,” the statement from the stewards said in this instance.

"The fact that a driver can see a green panel or flag ahead, does not mean that overtaking can occur in what is still a yellow flag zone. Overtaking can only occur after passing the green panel or flag.

"The stewards determined that this was a breach of the regulations," said the report, adding: “It was also noted that he did not make a sufficient reduction in speed.”

Sargeant received a ten place grid penalty and two penalty points against his superlicence, taking his total to six for the year. He was already set to start on the back row after having his final lap deleted for exceeding track limits.

In an unrelated incident, the Williams team was handed a €20,000 fine (half of which suspended for 12 months subject to no further similar incidents) after admitting that they had left a jack in pit lane where it was struck by Yuki Tsunoda during qualifying.

A final ruling for the day handed Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu a €500 fine for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 2.5mph.

The outcome of all that business means that the grid remains essentially unchanged for Sunday's race, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz set to start on the front row, and Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo immediately behind them.

The back row will see Sargeant start alongside Yuki Tsunoda, who had already received a grid penalty at the start of the weekend for new engine components being fitted to his AlphaTauri.

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