Hamilton, Webber and Alguersuari reprimanded after Spanish Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
It has been revealed that Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, and Jaime Alguersuari were reprimanded for their driving during the yellow flag period of the Spanish Grand Prix.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes that the team has proved that both of the McLaren drivers slowed down for the corner according to the rules and that the cars were quicker at other portions of the track during those laps.
“We were able to show that they were slower at that corner than we had been, the data showed that they were. But I think the stewards still felt a reprimand was appropriate and I think they took a sensible view. Anyway, we move on now,” said Whitmarsh.
This incident was investigated after Heikki Kovalainen’s accident near turn four as a result of which the stewards were forced to wave the yellow flags for a couple of laps. Under yellow flag conditions, the drivers are supposed to drive carefully in order
to ensure the safety of the marshals but since these four drivers scored their personal best times during this period, they have been reprimanded for not following the rules.
Whitmarsh added, “We've got to make sure that we stay out of trouble, we do a good job, and it's only a few days before we get to Monaco. It was in a part of the circuit where they weren't on throttle anyway. So that was the difficulty.”
He added that since the incident yellow flagged area was in a braking zone where the cars are already off throttle, change in pace was not so evident as a result of which the lap times were not affected noticeably either.
McLaren had a pretty good race overall as Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished in 2nd and 3rd places respectively even though Button fell 5 places behind at the start.
His recovery was quite extraordinary keeping in mind the difficultly of overtaking at the Circuit de Catalunya. McLaren are closing in on Red Bull Racing team’s pace with each race as a result of which the upcoming races are going to be even more interesting.
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