Lewis Hamilton avoids another penalty for yellow flag offence at Sao Paulo GP

Lewis Hamilton has escaped a penalty for allegedly failing to slow for double-waved yellow flags during sprint qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion was eliminated in SQ2 after his final lap was ruined by Charles Leclerc’s spin, which resulted in double-waved yellow flags.

Hamilton was forced to back off, leaving him 11th on the grid for Saturday’s sprint race.

However, Hamilton was quickly put under investigation for potentially failing to slow down sufficiently.

His final lap was deleted after being set under double-waved yellow flags, but it wasn’t fast enough to make it into the top 10 regardless.

He has since been cleared of any wrongdoing, meaning he will start the sprint race from 11th.

The stewards explained that there was sufficient evidence to show that Hamilton didn’t see the signal illuminated.

While Hamilton did lift, due to the fact he saw Leclerc's car, he technically didn’t reduce his speed “sufficiently”.

The stewards agreed that a reprimand was fair for Hamilton given the circumstances.

The FIA explained in a statement: “Towards the end of Q2, Car 16 (LEC) spun at the exit of Turn 10, triggering double waved yellow flags. Shortly afterwards, Car 44 (HAM) approached the same corner and was just turning in when the double yellow light panels were activated on the left- hand side of the track.

“During the hearing, HAM explained that he did not see the light signal. The onboard footage confirms that the signal was only illuminated for a fraction of a second before HAM passed it. As the driver’s focus was clearly on the turn-in-point, he was looking to the right-hand side of the track, thus the Stewards find it credible that he did not actually perceive the signal.

“However, HAM acknowledged during the hearing that he saw Car 16 (LEC) stationary at the side of the track and could see a green light signal being displayed beyond that point. He therefore had to realise that he was at least in a yellow sector and as a consequence had to reduce speed discernibly.

“Looking into the telemetry, the Stewards found that the driver reacted by hesitating whilst applying the throttle, but did not reduce speed as required.

“In similar circumstances in the past, the Stewards have deemed it appropriate to impose a reprimand rather than the standard five-place grid penalty specified in the guidelines. In terms of consistency, the Stewards consider a reprimand to be sufficient in this case as well.”

Ferrari teammate Leclerc will line up from eighth on the grid, confirming Ferrari’s lack of pace at Interlagos.