Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for running his Ferrari too low to the ground.
Despite an impressive showing in Saturday’s Sprint marking his first victory since his high-profile move from Mercedes, Hamilton once again struggled on Sunday.
The 40-year-old could be heard clashing with his race engineer Riccardo Adami, and had to make way to let his team-mate Charles Leclerc through en route to a sixth-placed finish.
The seven-time world champion was later summoned to the stewards in the Shanghai paddock to answer the charge. Ferrari officials accompanied him to the hearing.
His team-mate Charles Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also faced sanctions from the stewards disqualification – for driving underweight cars.
Leclerc learned his fate first, and was disqualified with stewards noting that there were ‘no mitigating circumstances’ and that Ferrari confirmed that it was a ‘genuine error’ on their behalf.
Confirmation of Gasly’s disqualification followed minutes later.
Hamilton was in breach of a technical directive (TD), which is less binding and led to brief hopes that he would escape with a lesser sanction.
The breach was first noted in a technical delegate’s report, which noted that Hamilton’s car was ‘less than the 9mm minimum thickness required by TR Article 3.5.9 e)’ and referred the issue to the stewards ‘for their consideration’.
However, any hopes that Hamilton would avoid the fate of his team-mate were quickly dashed as he too was disqualified.
More to follow
