Lewis Hamilton is not being singled out by stewards, says F1 race director

Hamilton’s bid to match Michael Schumacher’s record 91 victories at the Russian Grand Prix was derailed when he was handed a 10-second penalty for performing two illegal practice starts ahead of the race.

The six-time world champion claimed afterwards that F1 bosses were finding new ways to stop him from winning.

But Australian race director Masi said: “As the FIA, we are here as the sporting regulator to administer the regulations, we have the stewards as an independent judiciary to adjudicate those, there was an infringement and it doesn’t matter if it was done by Lewis Hamilton or any one of the other 19 drivers.

“If a breach of the regulations has occurred, the stewards will consider it on its merits, and further to that, adjudicate it equitably and fairly in the circumstances, taking all the key elements into account.

“From my perspective, it is very simple, if Lewis wants to raise something, as I have said to him before, the door is always open and I am more than happy to discuss anything.”

Masi also dismissed Hamilton’s suggestion that he had carried out a similar practice start a “million” times before.

“At every other event, Lewis has complied with the requirements of where you perform a practice start in accordance with the race director’s instructions,” added Masi. “There was a miscommunication between Mercedes and Lewis because Valtteri Bottas, and all the other drivers, used the exact practice start location where it was supposed to be.

“You need to look at everything on its own merits and the stewards believed Lewis took a sporting advantage so they thought an appropriate penalty was an in-race penalty.”

Hamilton will now have to wait until at least a week on Sunday to match Schumacher’s all-time tally. The F1 circus next heads to the Nurburgring for the first time since 2013.

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