Hamilton penalty, loses pole!

Interesting news from the Spanish Grand Prix paddock. After a rather "normal" qualifying session earlier in the day, Lewis Hamilton has now been penalised by the stewards and loses pole position.

After posting the fastest qualifying lap of 1:21.707, around half a second faster than second placed Williams driver, Pastor Maldonado, Hamilton was told by his McLaren team to park the car on the side of the track and not return to the pits.

It has now emerged that the team did not fill the car with enough fuel to get back to the pits, and therefore in breach of regulations. Hamilton will now start from the back of the grid, while the Venezuelan Williams driver starts on his maiden pole position. However, Hamilton can also start from the pit lane if the team chooses to.

2012 Spanish Grand Prix Start Grid:

1. P. Maldonado
2. F. Alonso
3. R. Grojean
4. K. Raikkonen
5. S. Perez
6. N. Rosberg
7. S. Vettel
8. M. Schumacher
9. K. Kobayashi
10. J. Button
11. M. Webber
12. P. di Resta
13. N. Hulkenberg
14. J. Vergne
15. D. Ricciardo
16. F. Massa
17. B. Senna
18. V. Petrov
19. H. Kovalainen
20. C. Pic
21. T. Glock
22. P. de la Rosa
23. N. Kathikeyan
24. L. Hamilton (disqualified from qualifying)

Steward's report

"The Stewards received a report from the Race Director which stated that during post-qualifying scrutineering a sample of fuel was required from car 4, however, the car failed to return to the pits under its own power as required under Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

The Stewards heard from the team representative Mr Sam Michael who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force majeure. A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes.

As the amount of fuel put into the car is under the complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure.

The Stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the Competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The Competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid." 

- Courtesy gpupdate.net

Image source: Wikipedia.org