The FIA made a striking move after consultation with the drivers on Friday. If the track limits are broken, the lap times of the drivers will not be deleted.
During the practice sessions on Friday this was still the case and 33 lap times were deleted, mainly due to incidents at turn 4. No less than five times were taken from Lewis Hamilton, most of them on Friday.
Can ruin the race
Sebastian Vettel, who saw four times removed, mentioned this to race director Michael Masi during the drivers briefing. According to Vettel it had never happened before that track limits were monitored at turn 4. Hamilton supported the German in this. He said this could ruin the race if it was followed too strictly.
Masi would take a look at it and in a statement for FP3, quoted by Motorsport.com, he said: "The track limits at the exit of turn 4 are not monitored with regard to setting a lap time because the defining limits are the artificial turf and gravel pit at that location."