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Hamilton wants clarification on yellow flag rules

Lewis Hamilton wants clarification on what drivers are allowed to do under double waved yellow flags following Nico Rosberg's pole position in Hungary.

Rosberg encountered a double waved yellow at Turn 8 on his final lap of Q3 after Fernando Alonso spun at the following corner. With the track going green again after Rosberg exited the corner, he duly went on to set the fastest middle sector of the session and the lap was still good enough to take pole position from Hamilton.

Speaking before Rosberg was investigated and cleared by the stewards - who said the German "reduced speed significantly" - Hamilton said it needs to be clear what is and isn't acceptable in such conditions.

"Well yes, when it is a yellow flag it says that you have to be prepared to slow down or you have to slow down and lose some time," Hamilton said. "When it is a double yellow it says be prepared for a car or steward on track because you don’t know what is around the corner so you have to be prepared to stop, that is what it says.

"The clarification that is needed is… Nico only lost a tenth at the corner so if that is really what we are allowed to do in future for the likes of even if you lift when you approach a corner with due care if that is allowed on a double yellow, I thought that was the case in a single yellow but maybe on a double I thought you had to pay more caution to it, if it is only a tenth you have to lose that is now different for us drivers and we can approach it differently. I’m sure not that is the safest approach.

"We’ve seen such incidents in the past. I seem to remember [Pastor] Maldonado nearly hitting a marshal at Monaco one time because he hadn’t slowed down enough and there was a marshal on the track.

"It is really to make sure it is very, very clear because it is not our safety but the safety on whether there is a car, driver or marshal on the track."

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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.