Steward Takes Hamilton's Penalty Points At The Russian GP

Lewis Hamilton (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The racing supervisor or steward revoked his decision to award two penalty points for Lewis Hamilton's super license after the six-time world champion was deemed to have made an illegal practice start at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, September 27.

Hamilton served a double penalty of five seconds each added to the race for starting practice in the pit lane. This penalty immediately blocked his bid for his 91st career win, equaling Michael Schumacher's record.

But according to Antara on Monday, the racing steward decided to revoke the two penalty points accompanying the penalty hours after Hamilton finished third, behind his Mercedes team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen of the Red Bull team.

The race supervisor confirmed that Hamilton was ordered by his team to do a practice start in a forbidden place.

"The steward received information from the team if the racer from the number 44 car had received the team's instructions to start training in the wrong place," the FIA statement was quoted as saying on the official Formula 1 website.

"This was confirmed by the stewards by listening to the audio between the team and the rider.

"Based on this information the steward replaced document 47 with this decision and therefore deleted the penalty points awarded."

P̶e̶n̶a̶l̶t̶y̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶ # RussianGP 🇷🇺 # F1 https://t.co/nWNPR8wgY4

- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 27, 2020

Hamilton called the sentence "ridiculous" and accused the race supervisor of wanting to stop his winning run.

Previously, Hamilton received four penalty points at the Austrian GP for ignoring the yellow flag during qualifying, and two additional points after the incident with Alexander Albon.

He also got two points for entering the pit lane while still closed at the Italian Grand Prix.

The FIA introduced the rule in 2014, and so far no racer has exceeded the penalty point limit and has been penalized for one race.

Each racer gets 12 penalty points for their super license before being banned from racing one series.

AFP later reported that Steward decided to fine the Mercedes team 25,000 euros for each violation.