Lewis Hamilton got away with only a reprimand after the stewards found he failed to slow for yellow flags during sprint qualifying yesterday.
Hamilton was noted by race control after it appeared he failed to slow for the yellow flags shown after Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc had spun, leading to a stewards’ summons yesterday evening.
In the meeting, Hamilton explained he failed to see the yellow flag signal, which the stewards found was only shown “for a fraction of a second” before Hamilton went past. As his focus was on turning into the corner, they found it reasonable that he had not seen the signal.
Hamilton did notice a green flag signal ahead — meaning there had to be a yellow flag behind — and therefore did reduce his speed, albeit by hesitating on the throttle instead of slowing down as required.
With those factors in mind, the stewards opted to give Hamilton a reprimand instead of a grid drop, meaning he will still start today’s sprint race from 11th. It was his first reprimand of the season.