FIA removed Hamilton penalty points, team is punished

Lewis Hamilton initially received two penalty points for the two practice starts he made at the end of the pit lane before the Russian Grand Prix. However, the FIA has come back to this and announced that they have withdrawn the penalty points.

Hamilton did not have a strong Russian Grand Prix. Even before the race actually started the Mercedes driver made two messy mistakes. Twice he did a practice start in a place where that was not allowed. For Hamilton this meant a penalty of five seconds twice and two penalty points.

The FIA have however re-thought the punishment. The time penalty remains, of course, but the penalty points have been withdrawn, bringing Hamilton back to eight points in total over the last twelve months. However, the team will receive a fixed fine of €25,000.