November 13, (THEWILL) – Sir Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying due to a rear-wing violation.
Hamilton, who already had a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix, was in brilliant form in first practise, finishing 0.438 seconds faster than Verstappen before his car was referred for the mechanical issue.
After his car was judged to be non-compliant, he will now start at the rear of the sprint grid. While Hamilton’s car was inspected, it was discovered that his rear wing did not comply with the rules, since the gap between two sections of the wing when the DRS overtaking aid was activated was greater than the maximum allowed distance of 85mm.
The stewards explained the reasons for the punishment in a statement that read: “In lay terms, there is a gap between the upper and lower parts of the rear wing. When the DRS is not activated this gap must be between 10mm and 15mm. The car passed this part of the test.
“When DRS is activated, which raises the upper element of the wing to a flatter position, the gap must be between 10mm and 85mm. The maximum gap is measured, in accordance with TD/011-19, by pushing an 85mm gauge against the gap with a maximum load of 10N (ten newtons.) If the gauge goes through then the car has failed the test.
“In this case, the gauge would not pass through at the inner section of the wing, but did at the outer section of the wing. This test was repeated four times with two different gauges, once being done in the presence of the Stewards and representatives of the Competitor.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen was fined €50,000 on Saturday after video surfaced on social media of the 24-year-old seeming to check the back wings of both his Red Bull and Hamilton’s Mercedes with his hands.
Article 2.5.1 of the sporting code states that “no operation, checking, tuning or repair is allowed”.
With 107 points available across the remaining four races, Verstappen leads Hamilton by 19 points.
The Brazilian Grand Prix suited Hamilton’s Mercedes, but if he wins the sprint qualifying event, he will only be able to start sixth on Sunday. Despite the penalty, Hamilton was upbeat heading into the race.
The Brit said: “It was a very good qualifying session. I am super happy with it. We have the penalty but we give it everything we’ve got.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
