Hamilton disqualified from US Grand Prix after failing inspection

Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the US Grand Prix after his car failed a post-race inspection, stripping the seven-time world champion of his second place finish. The controversy came just four hours after he lost out to Dutch Max Verstappen by two seconds following the competition in Austin, Texas.

Four cars were subjected to random stop checks at the flag but Hamilton’s vehicle was declared illegal for having excessive wear on the underfloor skid blocks. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth, also suffered the same fate and was barred from his place on the podium. The skids at the bottom of each car, which makes contact with the track and causes sparks, are required to have a minimum ground clearance for F1 cars. Both Hamilton and Leclerc’s vehicles were so worn away they no longer met competition standards.

The depth of the new floor on Hamilton’s Mercedes was adjudged to be ‘outside the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 e)’ – which states that the plank cannot wear to below 9mm thickness. Hamilton’s disqualification meant that McLaren’s Lando Norris was promoted to second while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took third place. Amongst those watching in the stunned crowd was Prince Harry, who was seen laughing and having animated chats with Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner.

Hamilton was already wary of the state of his tyres during on of his pit stops. Asked if he could complete another lap on the set of wheels, he said: ‘I am not sure, man. It is pretty tough.’ Despite his reservation, he set off with the same tyres. But soon his race engineer was back on the intercom informing the driver that Verstappen – who had decided to put on new tyres – had lapped three seconds faster than him. The update was met with an irritated reply from the British driver who yelled: ‘No [Expletuve] man. I am struggling out here.’

Hamilton conceded a 10-second swing to Max Verstappen when Mercedes left their star driver in no man’s land as they attempted a one-stop strategy at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. The British F1 star was less than two seconds behind early leader Lando Norris and five seconds clear of Verstappen, who started only sixth, as they approached the opening round of pit stops. Hamilton came in four laps later than Verstappen with a slow front-right tire change adding to his woes. When he emerged from the pits, he had dropped to third, five seconds adrift of Verstappen and 7.5 sec back from Norris.

Hamilton saw off Norris with a dozen laps to go, but he could not reel Verstappen in – taking the checkered flag an agonizing 2.2 sec behind. After he was handed the second place title he on to boast that had it been a different day, he would have beaten the Dutch winner. He told reporters: ‘Yes, I do think we would have been in position to fight Max and we made life harder for ourselves than it needed to be. There were a lot of areas where we could have been better and the positives are we could match them for pace. Second is great. To come in this weekend and have real strength, it is a solid second, it feels really positive.’ The F1 champion said that his team needs to ‘get the strategy right and the pitstops right’ so they ‘can be racing for a win’.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff added: ‘At the moment, we have mixed feelings because there is the pain of just having lost a race that we could have won. A few hours later, however, Hamilton’s Mercedes team were later taken to the FIA stewards in Austin. A statement said: ‘The Stewards heard from the team representatives of car 44, the Technical Delegate, the FIA Single Seater Director and the FIA Single Seater Technical Director. During the hearing the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA Technical Team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the Sprint raceschedule that minimised the time to set up and check the car before the race.’

‘The Stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event. In this particular case, the rear skid in the area defined in the Technical Delegate’s report was outside of the thresholds which includes a tolerance for wear. Therefore, the standard penalty for a breach of the Technical Regulations is imposed.’ Speaking after his disqualification, Hamilton spoke of his disappointment but tried to remain positive.

He said: ‘It was tough racing those around me as they were so quick, but we can be happy with many things. I feel positive as we’re moving forward, even if reflecting on it we could have possibly won today. It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend.’

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