REPORTS: Lewis Hamilton’s Penalty Details Leaked by FIA Steward Ahead of Russian Grand Prix

It was quite an unusual day in Sochi. There was drama even before the race started, which only carried into the race with separate instances throughout.

However, all eyes were on the 10-second time penalty levied on Lewis Hamilton. The British driver was on course for a joint-record 91st race victory. But the FIA threw a spanner in the works and issued this time-based sanction during the Russian GP.

Lewis Hamilton sanction reportedly leaked to commentators

However, as per a video that surfaced on the internet today, Finnish broadcaster C More Entertainment were apparently aware of this news ahead of the race. And that is interesting because the FIA only made the details of the investigation official during Lap 7 of the race on Live television.

The commentators in the video allegedly said, “We can tell here in the commentary booth. The official information is not out yet, but most likely a 2 x 5 seconds is the penalty for Lewis Hamilton.

“In addition two penalty points, which means that Lewis Hamilton would get a race ban for the next GP.” (as per video subtitles)

It is certainly tough to see how the commentators could arrive at such an accurate conclusion. The quantum of sanctions is something that the stewards at Race Control continually debate.

And once they are all in consensus, issue the decision during the race. So, how did the commentators know before the FIA revealed the official decision?

The suspicion is that an FIA steward apparently communicated this information to C More’s commentators before the lights went out.

Hamilton’s penalty points retracted after the race

The bright spot for Hamilton in a day marred by technicalities was the retraction of his penalty points. Having been slapped with two points on his Super License, the stewards listened to the interaction between him and the team.

And based on that, they deemed it was very harsh to impose those penalty points. Had the points remained, it would have taken his total to 10 points. The directive is that accumulating 12 points in 12 months leads to an automatic race ban.

Lewis was obviously distraught to hear about both the sanctions. The Mercedes driver believed that he had not endangered the safety of any driver.

However, the British phenom declared that he wanted to move on from this and looked forward to the upcoming races in a bid to get that 91st race victory to etch his name in the history books, yet again.