Lewis Hamilton has escaped penalty after facing Valencia race stewards after being accused of blocking Nico Rosberg during qualifying in Valencia.
McLaren was driver accused of blocking Rosberg
Lewis Hamilton has escaped penalty after facing Valencia race stewards after being accused of blocking Nico Rosberg during qualifying in Valencia.
Hamilton was accused after slowing down to give himself clear air at the start of the lap with which he secured second place on the grid for Sunday's race.
Mercedes claimed that, in doing so, Hamilton blocked Rosberg's tilt at securing pole, and the McLaren driver - who was sent to the back of the grid in Spain last month after being found to have run an under-fuelled car during qualifying - was summoned by the stewards to explain his actions.
However, he has been cleared of wrongdoing with Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz surmising that the stewards judged the incident to have occurred around a busy section of the track "with many drivers holding each other up".
What Mercedes say that Lewis Hamilton did, and what there doesn't seem to be any doubt over, is that Hamilton drove slowly through the last few corners," Ted explained to
Sky Sports News. "But the stewards have decided - and Lewis Hamilton has argued - that it wasn't unnecessarily slowly.
"There were lots of other cars in there at the time jostling for position as they prepared to set their fastest laps at the end of Qualifying Three and that was the reason if Lewis Hamilton was indeed driving slowly. It wasn't to back up Nico Rosberg behind him and ruin the Mercedes driver's lap, it was just one of those things that happened.
"So a big sigh of relief for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton. He will start in his proper second place for the European Grand Prix tomorrow."
In an official statement, the FIA confirmed:
'Fact: It is alleged that Car 4 Lewis Hamilton did not comply with the instructions of the Race Director, namely "cars should not be driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25".
'Decision: The Stewards, having heard from both drivers and the team representatives, examined the video, audio and GPS evidence and telemetry data, decide to take no further action.'
'Reason: 1) The sector time for Car 4 was actually faster than a time set previously in that same sector by Car 8 Nico Rosberg, which is an indication that Car 4 was not being driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25.
2) The smallest gap between Car 4 and Car 8 was 18 metres and 1.1 seconds.'
