Hamilton escapes further stewards' punishment after Verstappen crash

Lewis Hamilton has avoided additional punishment from the stewards following his British Grand Prix collision with F1 title rival Max Verstappen.

The decision follows a hearing of the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards with team representatives held via video conference on Thursday afternoon.

Red Bull had requested a review of the 10-second time penalty issued to Hamilton during the race that failed to stop him from claiming his eighth British GP triumph, believing it to be too lenient.

But following a lengthy meeting, the stewards confirmed that they "hereby dismiss the competitor's petition for a review under Art. 14 of the FIA International Sporting Code (ISC)."

The British GP stewards had deemed Hamilton to be "predominantly to blame" for the lap-one incident that resulted in Verstappen crashing into a tyre barrier at 150mph and with an impact force of 51g.

The seven-time champion had attempted a move up the inside of Verstappen going into Copse corner, only to back off, leading to the left-front wheel of his W12 hitting the right-rear of the Dutch driver's RB16B.

It resulted in Hamilton coming under fire from many inside Red Bull, predominantly by team principal Christian Horner who accused the Briton of being "dangerous", "desperate" and "an amateur".

With Red Bull seeking a more severe penalty, the onus was on the team to present "a significant and relevant new element" that was unavailable to the team at the time the decision was announced.

Representing Mercedes were sporting director Ron Meadows, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin and motorsport strategy director James Vowles.

For Red Bull were team principal Christian Horner, head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley.

FIA race director Michael Masi was also in attendance.

Red Bull provided the stewards with what it claimed to be 'new evidence'.

This consisted of slides: i) derived from GPS data available to them, of the cars involved in the accident at Turn 9, namely car 44 (HAM) and car 33 (VER); ii) derived from GPS data, drawing various alleged comparisons with the line taken by HAM when overtaking car 16 (LEC) at lap 50.

iii) which showed alleged lap simulations of the incident.

iv) which showed "a re-enactment of Hamilton's lap 1 line at Silverstone on 22 July 2021" based on a lap allegedly driven by another driver [Alexander Albon].

Article 14 of the international sporting code states any new evidence has to be "significant and relevant" and "is discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned".

According to the stewards, they must accordingly first determine that what is being presented as new evidence:

i) is "a new element"; ii) is "significant" and "relevant"; iii) is "discovered" [as opposed to created); and iv) was "unavailable" to the competitor at the time of the decision.

Using these criteria, the stewards determined:

a) That what was presented to the stewards was not "a significant and relevant new element [that was] discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned".

b) The slides in appendix 2 of the competitor's letter that were relied upon as new evidence were not "discovered" but created for the purposes of submissions to support the petition for review.

Additionally, "they were created based on evidence that was available to the competitor at the time of the decision [namely the GPS data].

"That clearly does not satisfy the requirements of Article 14. For this reason, the stewards dismiss the petition for review."

Pointedly, the statement added: "The stewards note, with some concern, certain allegations made in the competitor's above letter.

"Such allegations may or may not have been relevant to the stewards if the petition for review had been granted.

"The stewards may have addressed these allegations directly in any decision that would have followed.

"The petition having been dismissed, the stewards make no comments on those allegations."

It means going into this weekend's race, Verstappen leads Hamilton by just eight points, with Red Bull only four ahead of Mercedes in the constructors' standings.

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