12/06/2010
NEWS STORY
Pole-winner Lewis Hamilton has been fined and officially reprimanded following events at the end of today's qualifying session.
On his in-lap, having out-qualified the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton was told to stop out on circuit as there was not enough fuel in the car to get back to the pits and meet the stewards' needs for a sample.
Consequently, the Englishman stopped on track then got out and allowed it to coast down the main straight before pushing it back towards the pits.
Following an investigation the race stewards deemed that Hamilton had exceeded the maximum time allowed to return to the pits after the end of the session - a breach of Article 15.1 of the 2010 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations. As a result he was fined $10,000 and officially reprimanded.
Speaking after the session, Hamilton said of the order to stop on track: "It was actually great. It gave me more time to wave. There is so much support here from all the fans. There are a lot of McLaren supporters here, there are a lot of British flags here. Every time I come here the support is absolutely immense.
"So it gave me a little bit of time to firstly acknowledge them and then I switched the car off and I was rolling. I got out and started pushing it and it felt great actually. It was quite a unique experience and I'm sure I won't forget it."
At $10,000 a pop we're sure he won't.