The FIA ​​wanted to take the time to examine the Hamilton case

The maneuver Lewis Hamilton at the German GP caused a lot of ink to flow, the driver Mercedes having passed onto the grass, avoiding at the last moment to go through the pits to follow Kimi Räikkönen's strategy while the safety car was on track.

The Hockenheim stewards preferred to study the incident after the race and to give a simple reprimand to the winner of the race while a time penalty was feared.

“You have to take a little time to make sure that if you call a team, you do it for the right reasons, explained FIA race director Charlie Whiting. We wanted to wait until the race was over before studying it because we were already close to the end. The downpour then arrived. Everyone was then able to regain their calm and the commissioners decided to discuss it with the team. »

The stewards' decision was the subject of widespread criticism based on a similar incident with Kimi Räikkönen at the 2016 European GP in Baku.

“I don't believe there has been an identical situation in the past. Kimi had a five-second penalty two years ago in Baku, but the situation was very different”, defended Charlie Whiting.

Discover the analysis of the German GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2175 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.