Hamilton, Russell and other F1 drivers cleared of blame by FIA

F1 News

No penalty for F1 drivers sprint shootout Qatar
7 October 2023 at 17:58
  • GPblog.com

As on Friday, several Formula 1 drivers were also under a magnifying glass on Saturday in Qatar. This had everything to do with the maximum lap times between the safety car lines, which were not met by all F1 drivers. None of the drivers were penalised for it; only Pierre Gasly received a warning.

Stewards pass judgement on several F1 drivers

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, Liam Lawson, Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargeant, Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly were all investigated by the stewards in connection with exceeding the maximum lap times. The latter was the only driver to receive a warning.

Gasly's warning had to do with the way the Alpine driver drove his cooldown lap. According to the stewards, he could have done more to stay under the target time as he was not hindered by traffic. In the case of the other drivers, the stewards ruled that they did all they could to avoid hindering other drivers and so they would not have driven 'unnecessarily slowly'.