GAME ON
N
ico Rosberg had his Formula 1 world
championship lead over Mercedes team mate
Lewis Hamilton cut to one point after the German
was demoted from second to third place in the British
Grand Prix.
Race stewards imposed a 10-second penalty for
receiving help from his team via radio transmissions, in
breach of the regulations that state the driver must drive
the car alone and unaided.
“Avoid seventh gear,” Mercedes told Rosberg. “You
need to shift through it.”
Rosberg had finished the race, won by Hamilton for
the third year in a row, 1.3 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen. He told reporters the
gearbox would have failed without the instruction.
There are 11 rounds remaining. Rosberg reeled off four
wins in a row at the start of the season while Hamilton has
taken four of the last five.
Mercedes told Rosberg to avoid the seventh gear
five laps from the end after he suffered problems, arguing
after the race that the regulations allowed such advice if a
terminal failure was imminent.
Team boss Toto Wolff read out part of the regulation
on ‘driver aids’, saying the list of permitted messages from
pit to driver included “indication of a critical problem with
the car”.
“That was the basis of our decision,” he said, even as
rivals questioned his interpretation of the rule.
Stewards said in their ruling that while the team “gave
some instructions to the driver that were specifically
permitted…the team then went further and gave
instructions to the driver that were not permitted.”
Mercedes said they intended to appeal the ruling,
starting a process that could take weeks to resolve with a
final decision made by the FIA’s court of appeal.
Hamilton can meanwhile take the overall lead in the
championship at the next race in Hungary on July 24.