A one-race ban would be imposed if a driver reaches 12 points
Friday 6 May 2016 12:17, UK
Lewis Hamilton may be one reprimand away from a 10-place grid drop, but Mercedes' world champion is on far safer ground where F1's more stringent driver penalty points system is concerned.
Since 2014, the sport has operated a totting up procedure for driving offences with penalty points added to Super Licences when stewards believe a punishable offence has been committed on track.
A one-race ban would be imposed if a driver reaches 12 points, with the points accrued remaining on the licence for a period of 12 months before they are removed on their respective one-year anniversary. No driver has yet reached the dozen-point limit.
Hamilton has collected just two points over the last year, added when he collided with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo at last July's Hungarian GP.
New Red Bull driver Max Verstappen remains at the top of the table with eight points.
Although the 18-year-old has not felt the wrath of the stewards in the opening four rounds of 2016, the Dutchman will not drop the first of his points until two days after the Spanish GP, on May 24 - the one-year anniversary of his heavy crash into Romain Grosjean at last year's Monaco GP which collected two points.
Daniil Kvyat, the driver Verstappen has swapped seats with, now has five points on his licence after picking up three for his wayward driving on the opening lap at the Russian GP. The 22-year-old's other two points came at the Hungarian GP when he overtook Hamilton off the track.
A quartet of drivers - Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson, Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg - have four points apiece against their names, with Ferrari pair Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen both on three.
Championship leader Nico Rosberg is one of eight current drivers not to accrue any penalty points in the last 12 months.
