Lewis Hamilton held on his German Grand Prix victory after he was summoned and repremanded by stewards to explain a driving misdemeanour.
The Mercedes driver aborted a pit stop to change tyres under a late-race safety car and cut across the grass to rejoin the track and take the lead.
F1 rules prohibit cars entering the pit lane from crossing the line separating the pit entry and the track.
His win gave him a 17-point lead over title rival Sebastian Vettel.
LAP 53/67
Hamilton looks to come into the pits…
But instead stays out, and leads under Safety Car#GermanGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/lHBfioSng8
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 22, 2018
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The race was thrown into disarray by late rain and Mercedes were not immune from the chaos, as evidenced by a breathless radio exchange when the safety car was deployed following Vettel’s race-ending crash.
Hamilton was told to pit, then told the team Kimi Raikkonen was pitting in front of him and was told to stay out, which became “in, in, in, in!” as he aborted and cut across the grass to rejoin the track.
Should the race stewards deem an offence has been committed, a five-second penalty would drop Hamilton down to second place, while a 10-second punishment would bump him down to fourth.
During the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan in June 2016, Raikkonen was given a five-second penalty for starting to go into the pits and then not doing so.
