Lewis Hamilton has been stripped of second place at the United States Grand Prix after a post-race technical inspection revealed his Mercedes car was set up to run lower than allowed according to the regulations.
Charles Leclerc has also been disqualified from sixth place after Ferrari was found to have committed the same breach.
A random post-race technical check found both cars suffered excessive wear to their rear titanium skid blocks.
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The titanium-alloy skid blocks are part of the plank, which is bolted to the car floor and regulates minimum ride height. The blocks can protrude from the plank by up to 3 millimetres and are designed to prevent damage to the plank and floor when the car bottoms out.
The F1 technical regulations state that the plank, which is made from wood and resin, must be 1 centimetre thick.
A plank worn down by more than 1 millimetre is in breach of the technical regulations, which carries automatic penalty of disqualification.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari were summoned to post-race stewards hearings to explain themselves, but neither team was able to talk their way out of automatic exclusion from the results.
“During the hearing the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA technical team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the sprint race schedule that minimised the time to set up and check the car before the race,” the stewards wrote in summary for penalties to each driver.
The Circuit of the Americas is a notoriously bumpy course due to the shifting soil on which the track has been built. Race organisers grind down the worst of the bumps, but some have become so bad that partial resurfacing has been required.
The size of the bumps change constantly, and the single practice session owing to the sprint format meant teams had less time than usual to adjust to the circuit.
But the stewards found that wasn’t sufficiently mitigating not to disqualify the drivers.
“The stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event.
“In this particular case the rear skid in the area defined in the technical delegate‘s report was outside of the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 (e) of the FIA Formula 1 technical regulations, which includes a tolerance for wear.
“Therefore the standard penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is imposed.”
Along with Hamilton and Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris also had their planks measured in the random post-race inspection. Both were found to be in compliance with the rules.
The disqualifications move Alex Albon up to ninth and Logan Sargeant into 10th for the American’s first-ever world championship point.
Carlos Sainz also collects his third grand prix podium of the season.
The points recalculation puts Sergio Pérez 39 points ahead of Hamilton in the battle for second in the drivers championship, having originally braced for his margin to shrink to 19 points after the flag.
McLaren has added an extra point to its lead over Aston Martin for fourth in the constructors standings, stretching the margin to eight points.
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