Hamilton and Stroll handed formal warnings for queue-jumping in pit lane

The stewards have issued formal warnings to Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll for overtaking their rivals in the pit lane during practice.

The drivers’ teams were also warned after both were found to have violated the race director’s instructions on how drivers should join the fast lane of the pits when leaving the garages.

Drivers are forbidden from overtaking any cars which are in the fast lane of the pits by passing through the inner lane or working lane. The rules on when a car is considered to be inside the fast lane have been tightened in recent seasons due to an increase in drivers queueing at the pit lane exit anticipating the beginning or resumption of a session.

The stewards found both Hamilton and Stroll “overtook several cars in the fast lane whilst traversing the working lane to the practice start area” during the second practice session. Stroll did so following the second red flag and Hamilton did after the third.

The race director’s notes for this event define precisely how drivers may join the fast lane and that they should not be overtaken once inside it unless their car stops with an “obvious mechanical problem.”

“Any car(s) driven to the end of the pit lane prior to the start or restart of a free practice session [or] qualifying session must form up in a line in the fast lane and leave in the order they got there,” the instruction explains.

“A car will be considered to be ‘in the fast lane’ when a tyre has crossed the solid white line separating the fast lane from the inner lane, in this context crossing means that all of a tyre should be beyond the far side, with respect to the garages, of the line separating the fast lane from the inner lane.”

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“After the start or restart of a free practice session [or] qualifying session, if there is a suitable
gap in a queue of cars in the fast lane, such that a driver can blend into the fast lane safely and without unnecessarily impeding cars already in the fast lane, they are free to do so,” it adds.

“During a free practice session and qualifying session a car driving in the inner lane, parallel to the fast lane, will not be considered to have blended into the fast lane at the earliest opportunity.”

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