“The driver of Car 44, being on an in lap, was informed by the team that Car 11 was approaching on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8,” a statement from the stewards reads. “He then drove off line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention to give way for Car 11.”
“However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and drove back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, thereby clearly impeding Car 11.
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“The Stewards determine that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”
This was not the only change to the classification after qualifying, with Alex Albon disqualified from the session after the floor of his Williams was found to “lie outside the regulatory volume”.
The Thai driver had qualified in P8, meaning that his disqualification – and Hamilton’s three-place drop – will see several drivers move up in the order.
