Lewis Hamilton says the lack of penalty for Nico Rosberg after yellow flags emerged during his pole lap for the Hungarian Grand Prix is sending the wrong message and needs to be clarified.
Fernando Alonso spun during the final moments of Q3 on Saturday, with Hamilton having to back off due to the double waved yellows.
The McLaren had got going again by the time Rosberg reached Turn 8 but the yellow flags were still out. He went on to claim pole and his lap was investigated by the FIA, who felt he had slowed sufficiently.
“Well the stewards need to come up with some kind of solution because it is,” Hamilton said. “My whole 23 years of racing, it has been ‘if it’s yellow flag, you slow down’ and if it’s double yellow flag, you be prepared to stop.
“Nico was doing the same speed at the apex as I was doing on the previous timed lap. The fact that he didn’t get penalised for it means that we need to be careful.
“Because the message we’re sending not only to the drivers here but also to the drivers in the lower categories is that it’s now possible for you to lose only one tenth of a second in a double waved yellow flag section which is the most dangerous – one of the most dangerous scenarios with the double yellow flags.
“They need to clear that up because before it was two tenths that you were meant to lose with one yellow flag and half a second with two yellow flags.
“It wasn’t the case yesterday and there was no penalty, so going into the next race, we could be battling for pole position and we see double yellow flags and we know we only have to do a small lift and lose one tenth of a second and we’ll be fine and go purple in the sector.
“So that’s why it does need to be clarified and I’m sure Charlie and the stewards are going to do so because it needs to be clear.”
Rosberg disagreed, replying: “What you have to do with a double yellow is significantly reduce your speed and make sure you go safe. I went twenty kilometres per hour slower into that corner. Everything is safe.
“That’s how I did my speed and lifted off thirty meters before my braking point, so I was just rolling there, twenty kilometres per hour slower until I got to the apex.
“Then of course when you’re in the apex, I would have a much tighter line because I went in slow and then so I could accelerate out again. So definitely I significantly reduced my speed and that’s what it says you need to do and that’s why for the stewards that was completely acceptable. I
“It was very obvious what I did. On a drying track, it’s irrelevant what the sector time was because you’re going to get so much quicker every time you go out there because there’s wet patches and when they dry, you just go so much quicker.
“And so in that segment, I was slower, where there was the yellow flag but of course in the big sector, yeah, I’m quicker because the track is getting quicker and I’m pushing in all the other corners. So it was a pretty clear case for the stewards and that’s why I didn’t get any penalty.”
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