Lewis Hamilton might have 'manifested his dream' after winning the dramatic German Grand Prix on Sunday. But the 'miraculous' victory can be taken away from him. The race stewards have summoned the Mercedes driver to explain a driving misdemeanour towards the end of the race. If found guilty, Hamilton is looking at a five-second penalty.
On Sunday, Hamilton started on the 14th position because a broken card prohibited him from finishing the qualifier. But clawing his way back up, Hamilton ended up winning the trophy at Hockenheim circuit.
Towards the final few lap of the race, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who was leading the race until then, crashed and the safety car was deployed. The subsequent chaos saw Mercedes team fumble with the radio exchange. Hamilton was told to pit, then was told that Kimi Raikkonen is pitting so he needs to stay out, which was followed by the instructions to get 'in, in, in!' just when he cut across the grass at the beginning of the pit lane and returned to the track.
"Box, box. Box, box. Get the gap to Valtteri," Hamilton's race engineer Peter Bonnington said on the radio.
"Kimi is staying out..." Hamilton replied
To which Bonnington said in the frantic voice, "No, stay out! ... In! In! In! In! In!"
It confused Hamilton, who in turn replied, "Hey man ..."
"No, sorry! OK, just go," said Bonnington
"I was at the entry, man. Are we in trouble?" asked Hamilton
"Negative, negative. So stay out," said Bonnington cutting off the conversation.
This manoeuvre is forbidden according to Appendix L Chapter IV Article(d) of the FIA International Sporting Code. The drivers are not allowed to cross the line that separated pit entry and the track.
"Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards), the crossing, in any direction, of the line separating the pit entry and the track by a car entering the pit lane is prohibited," the article adds.
According to ESPN, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff gave an explanation saying, "Chaos broke loose at that stage out there on track. It was very difficult to make the right call. At the end in the loss between the various voices over the radio, he made the decision to stay out, which was good for us because we were splitting bets. That proved to be the right call."
Hamilton finished 4.535s ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas in the final standings. If the stewards find him guilty, he will lose the top position to Bottas and his championship lead margin on Vettel will come down to 10 points instead of current 17points.
Update - Lewis Hamilton receives a reprimand from the stewards for crossing the line separating the pit entry and the track
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