F1 News
Hamilton believes the FIA should come down hard when yellow flags are ignored
- Tom Mason
Lewis Hamilton feels that the FIA should take a "strict stance" when drivers ignore yellow flags. This comes after Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen lost his pole position for not slowing down on a yellow flag following Valtteri Bottas's crash at the end of Q3.
As a result, the Dutchman will now start from fourth place while also receiving two penalty points on his racing license.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will now start on pole, ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton.
“I think it’s very important that the FIA are very, very strict with the double yellow flags, " Hamilton said as quoted by racefans.net.
"We’ve seen experiences in the past – I remember like Monaco, for example, where you see the GP2 driver [Pastor Maldonado in World Series by Renault] take out a marshal, a volunteer who puts their lives on the line to make sure the driver is safe on the road.
“If you’ve got people who are just being careless and not abiding by the rules… He actually didn’t even need to stay flat out.
"He’d already got pole, basically. I think the FIA need to be very, very strict on that.
“It doesn’t matter where the yellow is. You can see double yellow flags waving in general but I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse.
"The fact is he said he saw it. So he saw the flags and then decided not to react to it.”
The Brit can wrap up the Championship if he finishes 14 points ahead of teammate Bottas, although there are still three races to come after Mexico.