Five cars, one line, no penalty
FIA stewards spent part of Saturday at Zandvoort examining where five drivers parked their cars. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas all breached Article 12.2.1.i of the International Sporting Code on the way to the grid for the sprint. None of them leaves the Dutch Grand Prix with a punishment.
The article covers non-compliance with the race director’s event notes. Item 24 of those notes restates Article B5.2.4 of the FIA Formula 1 regulations, which says any car that does not complete a reconnaissance lap and reach the grid under its own power will not be permitted to start from the grid. The same notes define the grid as the stretch of track running from the front of marked grid box one to Safety Car Line 1.
All five drivers stopped short of that line.
Try it for $0.99.
A crowded grid decided it
The stewards pulled the in-car video before ruling. Their finding on car 44 laid out the reasoning that then applied to everyone else.
“Car 44 stopped before reaching Safety Car Line 1 and therefore did not reach the grid (as defined in item 24 of the Race Director’s Competition Notes) under its own power,” the stewards wrote. “However, as the end of the grid was extremely crowded when the car reached the grid, the Stewards determine that the driver acted appropriately and stopped the car in a safe spot as close as possible to the grid. Therefore no penalty is applied.”
Identical verdicts followed for Verstappen, Tsunoda, Stroll and Bottas. Zandvoort is one of the tightest pit lane and grid layouts on the calendar, and the stewards effectively accepted that the drivers ran out of tarmac rather than ignored an instruction.
The sprint order stands
Nothing changes on the timing sheets. Hamilton came home seventh in the 24-lap sprint and Verstappen sixth, both of them well behind George Russell, who converted pole into the win. Kimi Antonelli started fifth, one place ahead of Verstappen, after a Friday that neither championship contender enjoyed.
Antonelli still leads the drivers’ standings, with Hamilton and Russell his closest pursuers. Verstappen spent Friday complaining about downshift problems and never looked like fighting for the sprint win from sixth on the grid. A penalty on Saturday afternoon would have compounded a bad weekend. He avoided one.
Discover the rest of our Formula 1 news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply