Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton escaped a penalty after being cited by stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly.
Norris insisted that the dramatic end of Q1 in Baku, with two and a half minutes remaining on the clock and fifteen drivers rushing out of the pits, in an attempt to get ahead of the checkered flag and go for a lap, was a very difficult situation. dangerous.
Hamilton and Norris were summoned by the stewards after they were deemed to have broken the rules regarding driving unnecessarily slow on the out laps, with Hamilton expecting Norris to pass him and provide him with a slipstream, and the McLaren driver, whom in turn, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo followed, declining the movement.
Before going to see the stewards, Hamilton insisted that he had done nothing wrong and had followed the rules to stay above the FIA-prescribed delta time.
Upholding their verdict of taking no action , the stewards agreed that neither driver was at fault.
Regarding Hamilton, they reported the following: “The driver, in his statement, stated that he slowed down to try to be overtaken by car 4, to get a ‘slipstream’ on his fastest lap, however, car 4 obviously had the same intention and decided not to overtake him.”
“Although car 44 was slow, the stewards point out that, for the lap, the delta time was respected, the driver moved to the left and was outside the racing line, this happened on a straight where visibility was not It was a problem and there was no potential danger at any time, for any other driver. All three cars that were on that part of the track at the time (cars 44, 4 and 3) were doing laps out of the pits.”
Regarding Norris , they said: “Car 4 was following car 44 when it slowed down in an attempt to get past it by car 4. The driver of car 4 decided not to pass and at the same time yellow flags were shown at the next stewards position”.
“Although car 4 was going slowly, there was no potential danger to any other drivers, this was on a straight section where visibility was not an issue, and there was room for the car behind (car 3) to pass if the driver behind I would have wanted that car”.
Norris agreed that Hamilton had done nothing wrong by forcing him to slow down.
“It wasn’t unnecessary, it was necessary,” he said. “He wanted a slipstream, I wanted a slipstream. And I didn’t want to put him through that. So he didn’t do anything wrong, that’s racing. [He was] like in second gear or something.”
“Daniel did it to me a few years ago. Everybody knows that happens here sometimes. I don’t feel like [Hamilton] did anything wrong. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in his position.”
“I think what’s much worse and more dangerous is when everyone comes out of the pits at the end of Q1, and it’s all against all,” he said. “And you have people competing [for position] as they cross the start/finish line.”
“That’s more dangerous, because people risk doing things, whereas [in our case] it was me and Lewis, Daniel was a little bit behind and obviously Daniel didn’t want to pass either.”
