Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Formula 1
Jack Kenmare
Lewis Hamilton created an unwanted piece of history after the seven-time world champion was disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for a technical infringement on his Ferrari.
It was an encouraging start to the weekend for Hamilton, who claimed his first victory for Ferrari on Saturday by winning the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint.
Having stumbled to a 10th place finish in Melbourne last weekend, things looked promising for Hamilton heading into Sunday's much-anticipated race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Advert
But after finishing P6 following a challenging day, the Brit was disqualified after the rear skid block on his Ferrari was found to be under the minimum minimum 9mm thickness required.
A document released following the hearing reads: “The plank assembly of Car 44 was measured and found to be 8.6mm (LHS), 8.6mm (car centerline) and 8.5mm (RHS). This is below the minimum thickness of 9mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations."
It added: “During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.
“The Stewards determine that Article 3.5.9 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty of a disqualification needs to be applied for such an infringement.”
Advert
Following his efforts in China, Hamilton became the first driver in Formula One history to secure a win and also be disqualified in the same race weekend, according to Autosport.
It was a shocking end to the weekend for Ferrari as their other driver, Charles Leclerc, was also disqualified after his car was found to be below the minimum weight required by the technical regulations.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton opened up on his performance in China.
Advert
"I'm glad that we tried," he said. "I was struggling with performance. We had a pretty decent car in the sprint - we made some changes to try to improve the car and move it forward, and we made it worse going into qualifying and it was even worse in the race.
"Unfortunate, very, very hard to keep up with the cars ahead. But lots learned. At the end, Max [Verstappen, who finished fourth] was still doing similar laps to me and I had much fresher tyres, so it wasn't great."
He added: "All the pieces together made it quite a bit worse. Charles tested something in Bahrain, I hasn't tested it but we both went that way and it was bad! So I know not to do that again."