MX23RW : Friday, December 13 22:55:05| >> :600:172996934:172996934:

Lewis Hamilton under investigation for French Grand Prix incident

Lewis Hamilton under investigation for French Grand Prix incident
© Reuters
The stewards are looking at the conduct of the Mercedes driver after he appeared to block Max Verstappen in second practice.

Lewis Hamilton is under investigation by the stewards for appearing to block Max Verstappen in second practice for the French Grand Prix.

Less than a fortnight after Sebastian Vettel was stripped of his win in Canada for rejoining the circuit in an unsafe manner, Hamilton's incident with Verstappen will now be probed.

Hamilton ran off the Circuit Paul Ricard at the fourth bend after losing control of his Mercedes as he entered the corner.

He then came back on to the circuit with Verstappen running off the road to avoid Hamilton's recovering Mercedes. The world champion held his left hand up to apologise to Verstappen.

Hamilton will now wait to see if the stewards take any action.

After topping the time charts in the opening running, Hamilton trailed Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas later in the day.

Valtteri Bottas was nearly half a second quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas was nearly half a second quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton (Claude Paris/AP)

Bottas finished nearly half a second clear of world champion, with the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Vettel third and fourth respectively.

The Ferrari pair were six and seven tenths down on Bottas with Mercedes, who have won every race this season, again appearing to hold the advantage.

Back on track, British teenager Lando Norris finished an impressive fifth as his encouraging start to life in Formula One continued.

The 19-year-old was the only non-Mercedes and Ferrari driver to end the day within one second of Bottas' best time.

Indeed, Norris was ahead of both Red Bulls, in Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, who was eighth, and Carlos Sainz in the sister McLaren.

Sainz finished seventh, almost six tenths slower than Norris.

English novice George Russell finished 19th, half a second clear of his Williams team-mate Robert Kubica.

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Philip Duncan, Press Association Sport F1 Correspondent, Le Castellet');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a0bd138b-7e32-4456-81d4-135d52979bc6');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:auto,sport:f1,sport:other');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Hamilton under investigation at French Grand Prix'});

ID:362619: cacheID:362619:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:7083:
Written by
P A
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Max Verstappen looking sassy on May 22, 2019
Read Next:
Verstappen denies F1 easier than karting
>
rhs 2.0


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!