Hamilton’s pole under threat from FIA

Lewis Hamilton’s Barcelona pole is under threat after he stopped on his slowing down lap at the end of Q3.

Hamilton did the same after getting pole in Montreal in 2010 because the team was concerned that would not have enough fuel left to provide a sample if he had driven back to parc ferme.

After that the FIA told the teams that they couldn’t stop unless they could provide evidence of a valid reason, such as a car problem. And obviously the team would also have to demonstrate that there was enough fuel on board to have got back in normal circumstances.

The idea was to stop teams routinely cutting it fine on fuel loads and stopping on track at the end of qualifying.

Martin Whitmarsh says that Hamilton was told to stop today because of a technical issue. He says that Lewis still had 1.3 litres in the car, and asked by this writer he insisted that it was enough to have got back and provide a sample. Teams are expected to have a litre left for testing although there is a little leeway on that.

Other paddock sources insist that 1.3 clearly would not have been enough to have got back and provided the sample.

“There was enough fuel to take a fuel sample,” said Whitmarsh. “We stopped the car and we’re now talking to the stewards about there. There was I think 1.3 litres of fuel taken out of the car.

“I think the regulations are that you have to do that lap unless there’s a force majeure, and I think that’s the discussion that will probably happen.”

Asked if he could explain why Hamilton had stopped, he said: “Not in detail, but there was a technical problem. It’s not for me to decide but I would obviously believe that to be a force majeure, but it’s obviously for the stewards to decide.”

The suggestion is that the force majeure simply relates to a mistake being made in terms of how much fuel went into the car. Whitmarsh said: “It was a technical problem that happened in the garage that didn’t impede the performance of the car in any way. We stopped the car when it had 1.3 litres of fuel left in the car.”