Red Bull protest stewards' decision not to penalise Hamilton after yellow flags investigation

Jul 05, 2020 12:12pm UTC

Lewis Hamilton could yet face a grid penalty for today's Austrian Grand Prix for failing to slow for yellow flags during Saturday's qualifying session, after Red Bull requested the stewards review their original decision not to penalise the Mercedes driver.

Hamilton was called to see the stewards after qualifying on Saturday when it appeared he did not slow for yellow flags after his team mate Valtteri Bottas went off track in the third part of the session.

However, after reviewing footage, the stewards cleared Hamilton of any wrongdoing, saying: “[Hamilton] mentioned that he passed a green light panel in Turn 5. The video footage confirmed that there have been yellow flags and green light panels at the same time and therefore conflicting signals were shown to the driver. Taking this into account, the stewards decide to take no further action.”

The reigning world champion was therefore able to keep his second place on the grid for today's race.

But on Sunday afternoon it emerged Red Bull – whose driver Max Verstappen qualified third – had requested the stewards take another look at the decision. Hamilton was then summoned to the stewards again at 13.45 local time for a review.

The officials will need to make a decision soon, with the race set to start at 15.10 local time.

Watch the video above to see the incident in question, and follow our live coverage of the race to see what decision the stewards make.

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