Russian Grand Prix: Stewards cancel Hamilton’s penalty points | Racing News – Times of India

SOCHI (Russia): The stewards at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday evening cancelled the two penalty points imposed on Lewis Hamilton’s super license and instead fined his Mercedes team.
The six-time champion had been handed the two penalties and given two five-second time penalties after making irregular pre-race practice starts in the pit-lane exit road.
In a statement, the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), said they had been told that the team had instructed Hamilton to make his practice start in the wrong place.
“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,” it said.
“This was confirmed by the stewards having listened to the audio between the team and the driver.”
It went on to add that the stewards “therefore remove the penalty points imposed and fine the competitor (Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team) EUR25,000.”
The stewards added that they were fining Mercedes 25,000 Euros (29,000 dollars) for each infringement.
Hamilton, who was bidding to equal Michael Schumacher‘s record 91 Grand Prix wins, finished third in a race won by his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen second.