Lewis Hamilton avoided a penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in qualifying after Alpine agreed he was not held up by the Ferrari driver.
However the stewards have fined Aston Martin a total of €12,500 (£10,700) for two operational errors during qualifying.
The stewards took no action against Hamilton after speaking to him and a representative of Alpine.
“The driver of car 44 [Hamilton] explained that he was under the impression that car 10 [Gasly] was noton a push lap, and his team confirmed that it had the same opinion,” the stewards noted. “The driver and team representative of car 10 stated they did not consider this to be a case of ‘unnecessary impeding’. The stewards therefore determined to take no further action.”
The stewards also cleared Lance Stroll of impeding Nico Hulkenberg. They accepted Stroll’s explanation for not moving out of the way, while Audi also agreed their driver had not been impeded.
“The driver of car 18 [Stroll] advised that he saw car 27 [Hulkenberg] approaching but knew that he did not have the power at that stage of the lap, to move ahead quickly,” they noted. “He also believed thatif he tried to move off the racing line (i.e. to the left) he felt he would risk loss of control because he had previously run onto the grass at a prior turn, and that, combined with the track on the left being “dirty”, would not have provided sufficient traction.
“The driver of car 27 (via written submission) and the team representative of car 27 both agreed that this was not a case of ‘unnecessary impeding’.”
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However the stewards were unhappy with two other incidents involving Aston Martin’s drivers. They ruled the team sent Lance Stroll’s car out of the pits in an unsafe condition – its wheel covers were still fitted, which then fell on the track – and released Fernando Alonso’s AMR26 into the path of another driver.
The Stroll incident led to the team being fined €7,500. The stewards noted two parts fell off the car.
“On its way down the pit lane at the start of the session, car 18 lost an outer wheel trim,” the stewards ruled. “Then, on its first lap, the inner wheel cover also dislodged. This particular part, although made from carbon fibre, is still potentially dangerous if it hit another car or a person.
“The driver was not aware of the situation and the team admitted that part of its inspection process had overlooked the correct fixation of the securing devices for these pieces. The team undertook to thoroughly review its inspection process. The penalty is higher than for an unsafe release due to the fact that the car was on the track when the second piece dislodged.”
The stewards also ruled Alonso’s car was released unsafely when Q1 began, forcing Franco Colapinto to take evasive action. They fined the team a further €5,000 for this incident.
“It was apparent that car 43 [Colapinto] had to swerve and locked the front wheels to avoid a collision with car 14 [Alonso],” the stewards noted. “This was determined by the Stewards to be an unsafe release.”
The stewards also reprimanded Sergio Perez for failing to follow the race directors’ instructions when approaching turn 13 by failing to move to the right-hand side of the track to let other cars past. However they did not consider whether he impeded Alonso, who complained about the Cadillac driver.
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2026 Canadian Grand Prix
