Hamilton has penalty points removed following FIA stewards review

Ian Parkes
Sunday 27 September 2020 17:19 - Updated: 19:37

Lewis Hamilton has had the two penalty points imposed for his practice start infraction removed by the Russian Grand Prix stewards following a review.

Hamilton was handed two five-second penalties for conducting pre-race starts outside of the designated area at the Sochi Autodrom.

Frustratingly, he also had a penalty point for each infringement added to his Super License tally, taking him to 10 within the last 12 months, leaving him two shy of a potential race ban.

Hamilton and Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff were left fuming post-race with the penalties, with the six-time F1 champion citing it as ridiculous, further claiming the FIA was trying to stop him and Mercedes from winning.

Wolff, meanwhile, suggested the penalties were far-fetched, and that he and the stewards had to "agree to disagree" over the incident.

The stewards, though, have now decided to remove the penalty points and instead fined the team €25,000.

Via an additional published FIA document, it read: "The stewards received information from the team that the driver of car 44 [Hamilton] had received a team instruction to perform the practice start in the incorrect place.

"This was confirmed by the stewards having listened to the audio between the team and the driver."