Hamilton, Button & Sato cleared over tyre error
Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Takuma Sato have not been punished after using extra wet weather tyres in this morning’s practice session at Interlagos.
McLaren, Honda and Super Aguri respectively were fined €15,000 for the mistake and ordered to return one set of the wet tyres that had been scrubbed in to ensure they gained no advantage.
The stewards’ statement said: “To avoid the possibility that any of the three teams or their drivers could derive any benefit during the remainder of the event from having available to them part worn wet tyres, each team will forthwith voluntarily surrender those tyres to the FIA Technical Assistant.”
Although the rules were broken, it is hard to see what advantage any of the drivers gained from the move – indeed, having returned the tyres they may well now be at a minor disadvantage.
Photo: Daimler
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Alianora La Canta said on 20th October 2007, 15:02
The only time I can think of a team using too many tyres in a practise session that was treated like a private test was when Jordan gave Franck Montagny two more sets than permitted in a Friday third-driver session in Nurburgring 2005. They were banned from using a third driver in the next third-driver session in Canada.
I’m not sure that was a plausible option to impose on Hamilton, Sato or Button on this occasion – stopping them from doing the first session next year would cause a lot of problems for the FIA’s PR department, and it’s got enough already!