Lance Stroll joined Lewis Hamilton in the bad books of the Japanese Grand Prix stewards after both were found to have ignored a clear instruction given by the race director
Lewis Hamilton was one of two Formula 1 drivers given a telling-off by the Japanese Grand Prix stewards for ignoring an instruction given by the race director. Lance Stroll was the other racer who got on the wrong side of race control at Suzuka.
The second practice session of the weekend on Friday was incident-hit with no fewer than four stoppages. The red flags first flew when Jack Doohan crashed at 185mph, destroying his Alpine car and leading to an extensive clean-up operation on track which caused a delay of more than 20 minutes.
Practice was halted again not long after, but for a much more brief period when Fernando Alonso went off track and got his Aston Martin stuck in the gravel. And the other top stoppages late on came when high winds blew sparks from the cars onto the grass at the side of the track, which then caught fire.
At each re-start, cars came out of their garages to line up at the end of the pit lane, ready to get back on track as soon as they were allowed to. But both Hamilton and Stroll were found to have ignored the race director’s instructions on how drivers should approach such a situation.
In his event notes, race director Rui Marques specifically pointed out that “any car(s) driven to the end of the pit lane prior to the start or re-start of a free practice session [or] qualifying session must form up in a line in the fast lane and leave in the order they got there”.
READ MORE: Japanese GP video shows what Ferrari engineers did for Lewis Hamilton in team garageREAD MORE: F1 news: Lewis Hamilton fury vented as Max Verstappen admits his anger at situation
Marques also made it clear that “cars in either the fast lane or working lane may not overtake other cars in the fast lane except in exceptional circumstances”. Hamilton and Stroll were called into the stewards’ office after the session, both accused of ignoring that last instruction.
They were each found guilty of breaching Article 12.2.1 of the International Sporting Code and failing to comply with the race directors’ instructions. But neither will face either a financial or sporting penalty for their actions as the stewards chose instead to hand both drivers and their respective teams a formal warning.
Sky Sports launches discounted Formula 1 package
£43
£35
Sky
Get Sky Sports here
Formula 1 fans can watch every practice, qualifying and race live with Sky’s new Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in a new deal that saves £192.
As well as Sky Sports access, this includes more than 100 TV channels and free subscriptions to Netflix and Discovery+.
Despite his run-in with the stewards, Hamilton ended the day happy with his work and the progress made. “It’s been a really nice day. This track is awesome. It never ceases to amaze you when you get on the circuit,” he said after the first day of running at Suzuka.
“We have an incredible crowd here this weekend, first time seeing the support here for Ferrari. Generally, the sessions went well. We got through all the sessions. A bit worrying to see the crash at turn one, glad to see [Doohan] is okay.
“It’s quite gusty, so you get a big headwind through The Esses and that is when the track is the fastest, but it felt great. We got through all the programme, we got some performance we need to pick up. We are not the quickest at the moment but I think it’s a good baseline.”
More crucially in the long-term, he added: “From weekend to weekend I’m getting more comfortable in the surroundings and in the car… I’m starting to get to a point where I can push the car in a direction and know which tools I have to put the car in a better place, so I’m getting more comfortable with it. I expect that to just continue over all the races.”
