FIA race director Charlie Whiting has explained why Lewis Hamilton did not even face investigation for the incident with Sergey Sirotkin during Brazilian GP qualifying.
The two drivers almost collided on the approach to Juncao as the Briton tried to get out of the way of the fast-approaching Williams before starting a flying lap in Q2.
Despite what many thought would be a slam dunk penalty for Hamilton for impeding, the real circumstances leading to the incident are what drove the stewards’ decision not to even look into the matter.
“The predominant factor is both drivers were on an out-lap,” Whiting explained. “Lewis was told Sergey was behind him but he was on an out-lap, so Lewis was thinking, ‘OK we’re fine here, I can do my usual routine, get a gap to the car in front’.
“[Then] Sergey was coming through Turn 11 flat out. Lewis saw him coming and thought ‘There’s a car on a fast lap the team didn’t tell me about’.
“So, he went to move over to let him through and Sergey had already committed left. That was the reason for the incident.
“For me, it was just an unfortunate misunderstanding. It was clear immediately to me what happened, that nobody had done anything wrong.”
The veteran official said there was a brief conversation about the near-miss but quickly concluded no investigation was warranted.
“It would quite possibly have been quite a big shunt, but if you looked at the causes they would be the same,” Whiting continued.
“That’s why I would have thought the stewards would have come to the same conclusion.”
After qualifying, Hamilton described Sirotkin’s actions as “disrespectful” given there is a usual precedent for how drivers on an out-lap behave in the final corners, before the race though, he took to Instagram to clarify.
“I woke this morning feeling I should correct some of the words I used yesterday (Saturday),” Lewis began.
“It wasn’t a disrespectful move by Sergey, it was a misunderstanding and I honestly attempted to get out of his way.
“Didn’t work that well but s**t happens and I respect the way he handled it.”