How Lewis Hamilton escaped major Brazil GP penalty as race footage scrutinised.

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, the FIA spared Lewis Hamilton from a severe penalty.

Despite anticipating the five red lights ahead of time, Lewis Hamilton barely escaped a significant penalty during the Brazilian Grand Prix. With the Silver Arrows experiencing one of their worst weekends in recent memory, the Mercedes ace lost three positions during the race and ultimately finished eighth.

Footage of the race start showed that Hamilton edged forward in his grid box before the lights went out, leading to calls on social media for him to be penalised for a false start. The offence is usually punished with a five- or ten-second penalty or a drive-through, depending on the advantage gained.

However, the FIA decided not to give Hamilton any penalties after it was determined that his slight movement did not warrant a false start because he stayed within the lines. In order to sanction a false start, a driver must leave his grid position before the lights go out by crossing the orange line on the front left side of the box.

Hamilton managed to avoid crossing the orange line by quickly stopping his car just before the start, which he took at a standstill. Therefore, he did not commit an offence as his early reaction did not incur a false start and he was not penalised as a result

That aside, it was still a desperately poor weekend from the Brit as he slipped down the order despite making a reasonably strong start to the race. He jumped up to third by passing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll on lap one but was unable to maintain solid pace and was overtaken by the likes of Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly before the chequered flag.

George Russell, meanwhile, was forced into an early retirement as his power unit neared the point of failure, with Mercedes opting to bring him into the garage rather than nursing the car to the end. Toto Wolff was highly critical of his own team in the aftermath, branding their collective performance as ‘inexcusable’ while struggling to hide his disappointment.

“An absolutely appalling performance—words cannot even express it,” stated the head of Mercedes. “Whatever we did to that car was terrible because it finished second both last week and the week before. Lewis made it out there alive, but George Given how miserable things are for the two drivers, I can only feel bad.

“The car is on a knife’s edge, which illustrates how challenging it is. We need to improve that for next year because it isn’t acceptable to be nowhere after finishing on the podium as one of the two fastest cars in just seven days.”