Ferrari’s double-points finish at the Chinese Grand Prix has been wiped from the final standings after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both disqualified.
The seven-time world champion crossed the line sixth, but was later excluded after the skid block on the bottom of the car was found to have worn too thin, meaning the car would have been able to run lower to the ground, and therefore gain an advantage.
Leclerc and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly were both excluded after their cars were found to be underweight. Both tipped the scales a full kilogram below the 800kg minimum.
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Both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix. Getty
“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly,” the stewards wrote in their reports on all three disqualifications.
“The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.”
The race was won in dominant fashion by Aussie Oscar Piastri, who led teammate Lando Norris to McLaren’s 50th 1-2 in F1.
The disqualification sours what had been a strong weekend for Hamilton in only his second outing for Ferrari. On Friday evening, he took his maiden pole for the Scuderia for the sprint race, and then drove faultlessly to victory on Saturday.
Hamilton on Saturday claimed a maiden victory for Ferrari when he won the sprint race. Getty
Ferrari blamed Leclerc’s disqualification on heavy tyre wear, and Hamilton’s on a “misjudgement”.
“Charles was on a one-stop strategy today and this meant his tyre wear was very high, causing the car to be underweight,” the team said in a statement.
“With regard to Lewis’ skid wear, we misjudged the consumption by a small margin.
“There was no intention to gain any advantage. We will learn from what happened today and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again.
“Clearly it’s not the way we wanted to end our Chinese GP weekend, neither for ourselves, nor for our fans whose support is unwavering.”
It’s the second time in three seasons Hamilton has been disqualified for excessive skid block wear. Then driving for Mercedes, he was excluded from the 2023 US Grand Prix in Austin. In an interesting coincidence, so was Leclerc for the same offence.
Haas’ double points finish was boosted by the disqualifications with Esteban Ocon, who finished seventh moving up to fifth, while rookie Oliver Bearman went from 10th to eighth.
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was sixth, ahead of new seventh-place finisher Alex Albon. Lance Stroll in an Aston Martin moved up to ninth with Carlos Sainz of Williams taking the final point in 10th.
The next race will be held at Japan’s legendary Suzuka Circuit on April 6th to start a triple header with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
– With AP
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