Lewis Hamilton has kept his fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix after a stewards' investigation into an unsafe pit-stop release, with Ferrari receiving a fine.
Hamilton made his one and only pit stop under a virtual safety car midway through the event, and served his five-second time penalty for colliding with George Russell on the opening lap before the team changed his tyres.
As Hamilton was given the green light to pull away, a mechanic attempted to change the front-wing flap angle, but Hamilton collided with him, although serious injury was fortunately avoided.
Hamilton went on to finish in fourth place at Spa, to move up to second in the drivers' championship, but was placed under investigation for the incident, with the stewards deciding to hand Ferrari a €30,000 fine - of which €10,000 is suspended for 12 months, providing a similar offence is not committed in that period.
In the next 14 days, Ferrari must also provide the FIA with a report with "protocols introduced to mitigate the risk of such an incident occurring in the future."
The stewards decided that as Hamilton had stopped immediately following the incident and lost more time, a further sporting penalty for him was not justified, that it did "justify a significant fine on the competitor given that procedural failures of his nature prejudice the safety of mechanics."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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