Hamilton ‘relieved’ to keep pole after investigation

2017 British Grand Prix Qualifying

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Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is ‘relieved’ to keep pole after stewards chose to take no action over his incident with Romain Grosjean in Q3.

Hamilton took pole position in qualifying but the result was provisional as the stewards investigated whether he illegally impeded the Haas driver in Vale corner.

The stewards studied video and telemetry data and despite concluding that Grosjean “may potentially have been affected by the presence of Hamilton at Turn 16”, determined that “he was not impeded”.

“I’m grateful that the stewards didn’t take any action,” says Hamilton. “I had no intentions of getting in the way of anyone and I didn’t think I was in the way, but that’s definitely a relief.”

The stewards’ decision means that Hamilton will start his home grand prix from pole position for the third consecutive year.

“The weekend’s been great so far, the fans have been exceptional and to be able to pull out a lap like that and make it stick and be able to try and work from that tomorrow is a great feeling,” says Hamilton.

“I want to win this grand prix for this crowd.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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12 comments on “Hamilton ‘relieved’ to keep pole after investigation”

  1. Tiya
    15th July 2017, 18:36

    Phew.

  2. mark jackson
    15th July 2017, 19:13

    Stewards are 0 for 3 so far. Too lenient on Vettel in Baku, Bottas’ jump start in Austria, and now this.

    1. Kgn11
      15th July 2017, 21:15

      And China doesn’t count?

    2. grat
      16th July 2017, 4:44

      And I think they’re 2.5 for 3. I think Vettel should have been slapped a bit harder, but 10 second stop/go + 3 points is pretty brutal. What he did however, was inexcusable. He’s supposed to be a professional. If Hamilton had changed speeds suddenly, it wouldn’t have been a wheel on wheel “bump” (involving a ton and a half of very expensive racing equipment). If Vettel can’t keep his temper, he needs to go over to NASCAR where that sort of behavior is kind of tolerated.

      Bottas didn’t jump the start according to the steward’s guidelines– it would be nice if they’d publish all these “hidden” rules, but the reality is, Bottas got lucky. His car moved something like 2 milimeters– the car jumps more than that just shifting into 1st from a stop.

      As for impeding during qualifying, it’s usually called “traffic”, and while it sucks for Grosjean that he encountered it, it’s a fact of qualifying. Hamilton didn’t change course, or suddenly park– Grosjean was just moving a lot faster than Hamilton.

      Perhaps he should consider it karma for removing Hamilton from the Belgian Grand Prix in both 2009 and 2012.

  3. De
    15th July 2017, 19:26

    “I want to win this grand prix for this crowd.” Yeah, right, just don’t forget the season’s the most important thing…

    1. Vishy
      15th July 2017, 21:01

      Take anything out of context to put people down. I just cannot understand this hatred for Hamilton.

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        juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
        16th July 2017, 1:38

        I don’t think it’s hate against Hamilton for most people. They just don’t like how he carries on very much. Hate implies commitment and, while it’s usual for people to recognise when someone is being a narcissistic fool and then lapse into schadenfreude when things go wrong for them in a race, Lewis just isn’t worth the effort of hatred.

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    mystic one (@mysticus)
    15th July 2017, 22:57

    @vishy because he wasnt penalized for fictional “personal opinion”… if it was vettel, he would be on the radio till now that how he thinks this was Ham personally trying to screw him… because everyone’s opinion is a fact…

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    schooner (@schooner)
    16th July 2017, 0:02

    I don’t really have any particular bias towards either driver, but I can’t help but think that if their roles in this incident had been reversed, Grosjean would have received some sort of penalty.

    1. Richly
      16th July 2017, 0:11

      Only thing is that it’s unlikely that Merc, andLewis in particular would have made an issue of it. In his time as a driver he has complained very few times about being blocked, and L believe that he has defended drivers actions as well.

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    iFelix (@ifelix)
    16th July 2017, 9:15

    Seems it is one of those weekends that Hamilton is unstoppable; guess he will disappear to the distance right after the start.

  7. Caruana Emanuel
    16th July 2017, 9:43

    FIA stewards should not look at faces but be more consisted in their judgment. This is happening time after time.

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