Lewis Hamilton has been ruled out of sixth place at the Chinese Grand Prix after his Ferrari was found guilty of a regulations breach.
Hamilton, who scored eight points, was called before the stewards in Shanghai because the rear of his Ferrari was 8.5 to 8.6 millimetres below the minimum thickness of 9mm.
Three hours after the race, Hamilton was removed from the final standings, while his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc was also disqualified from fifth place for underweighting his car. Alpine's Pierre Gasly was also excluded for a similar offence.
In their statement, the stewards said: “Measurements were taken of the panelling of carriage 44 (Hamilton) and found to be 8.6mm (left), 8.6mm (along the carriage axis) and 8.5mm (right). These figures are below the minimum permitted thickness of 9mm as specified in Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations.
“During the hearing, the team's representative confirmed that the measurements had been taken correctly and that all necessary procedures had been followed. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that this was a clear error on their part.
“The stewards concluded that Article 3.5.9 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations had been breached and, therefore, the standard penalty of disqualification should be applied for this breach.”
While Oscar Piastri led the race, Lando Norris took victory to secure a one-two for McLaren and Mercedes' George Russell completed the podium, Hamilton had already struggled throughout the race before being disqualified.
He made a strong start from fifth and overtook Max Verstappen, but he struggled to keep up with the front three and soon had Leclerc on his tail.
Leclerc had a damaged front wing after colliding with Hamilton at Turn 1, but the Briton's speed was so poor that Hamilton told Ferrari he would let his team-mate through.
Hamilton's race engineer, Riccardo Adami, radioed him. “We'll swap at Turn 14,” he said. After a few heated exchanges, the seven-time world champion said: “I'll let you know when we can swap.”
It happened at the start of lap 21, when Leclerc quickly pulled away from Hamilton by two seconds.
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Sourse: breakingnews.ie
