Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from his second-place position in the United States Grand Prix after his Mercedes failed a physical floor and plank wear inspection after the race on Sunday. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was found guilty of the same offense and disqualified from his sixth-place finish.
The skids on the bottom of their cars, which are supposed to impose a minimum ground clearance for F1 cars, had worn away to the point that they were no longer in compliance with Formula 1 regulations. Due to Hamilton’s ban, Lando Norris of McLaren was elevated to second place behind race winner Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari was promoted to third.
“Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice – and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.
“In the end, all of that doesn’t matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there’s no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend.”
In Mercedes’ post-race press release, Hamilton said: “It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend.”
Meanwhile, after being promoted to 10th, Williams Logan Sargeant scores his first point of his rookie F1 season, with both of the team’s drivers scoring as Alex Albon moves up to ninth. In the battle for second place in the constructors’ championship, Ferrari is 22 points behind Mercedes with four races remaining.
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