Lewis Hamilton probed by stewards at Mexican GP for breaching track limits at Autodromo

Race stewards at the Mexican Grand Prix 2021 announced that seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton will face a probe for a minor infraction during the first practice session of the weekend on Friday. During the FP1 of the Mexican GP at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Hamilton was unable to slow his Mercedes while approaching the first corner and cut his way through the grassy run-off between turns one and two. The race director Michael Masi earlier instructed that drivers who found themselves in such situations should rejoin the track by going around the left of a bollard at turn three, which was not followed by the 2022 Drivers Championship contender.

The race stewards then announced that Hamilton will face an investigation between FP1 and FP2, with the possibility of a reprimand being handed over to him, which serves as a warning. If Hamilton repeats any such infractions further during the weekend, he would be penalized. However, at the end of FP1 Hamilton finished behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and ahead of championship rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Bottas was the fastest on the circuit with the timing of 1 minute 18.341 seconds, with Hamilton 0.076 seconds behind him.

Lewis Hamilton finished third in the FP2

Going ahead in the weekend, Verstappen emerged as the fastest in FP2 on Saturday, with Bottas and Hamilton second and third respectively. As Hamilton fought the heavy traffic at the beginning of the session, Verstappen topped the charts with the timing of 1m17.310s on the soft tyres with Bottas, 0.424s, and Hamilton 0.509s behind the current championship leader. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez finished at P4, with Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly splitting the Ferarri duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at P6. Gasly’s rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished at P8 ahead of the former world champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso respectively ahead of the rest of the grid. As the Qualifying round takes place after the FP3 on Saturday, Hamilton will look not to cause any more infringements and get closer to Verstappen in the F1 2021 Drivers Standings. However, home fans at the Mexican GP will be eager to see their home hero Sergio Perez finishing ahead of everyone else as Perez seeks his 2nd race victory of the year.

(Instagram Image: @mercedesamgf1)