F1 Zandvoort, Tsunoda penalized for impeding Hamilton
Yuki Tsunoda will start from 17th position in the Dutch Grand Prix. The Japanese, who qualified in 14th place, pays one impeding against Lewis Hamilton in the hot stages of Q2, while both were trying to qualify for the top-10.
Specifically, coming out of turn 13, the Japanese was on a dry line and not on his fastest lap. Tsunoda justified himself by stating that he had just been overtaken by another car and was therefore slowing down to create a margin, but the race stewards assessed how the AlphaTauri driver still had the possibility of moving off the trajectory and avoiding Hamilton to go in the wet and then dry again.
Commissioner’s statement
In this tweet of ours you will find the complete explanations from the race commissioners.
Official: Tsunoda penalized three places on the grid for impeding Hamilton. The Japanese will start 17th#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/S1tYMGo1ZX
— FormulaPassion.it (@FormulaPassion) August 26, 2023
Penalty “on request” by Wolff
Hamilton did not make much controversy about the incident, but the sanction against Tsunoda had been loudly “requested” by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the press conference. According to the Austrian, this maneuver cost the seven-time world champion qualification for Q3: “I think the answer is penalize, penalize, penalize. If you know you’re not going to jail when you cheat the IRS, you cheat the IRS. I don’t understand why these things aren’t penalised, there was a clear impediment with some riders in Q1 and also Tsunoda, who is a good guy, hindered Lewis in his fast lap, he didn’t move away from the dry line. You can see that he dived in and it doesn’t look like it cost him much, but going from a dry line to a wet line back to a dry line cost him something. I believe that a tenth would have put him in Q3. We have to be tough with the penalties and then people will look in their mirrors again“.
#Zandvoort #impeding #Hamilton #positions #Tsunoda