Yes, you read that right... Brazil winner Lewis Hamilton has been fined €5,000 for having his seatbelts undone whilst on track.

According to the stewards, Hamilton undid his seat belts on the in-lap at the end of the race as he leaned out of his car to take a Brazilian flag from a marshal.

While the stewards were sympathetic to his desire to celebrate, it is fundamentally unsafe to undo the seatbelts while the car is in motion.

"Slow speeds in these cars are very fast for an unrestrained occupant," said the Interlagos stewards in their ruling. "Further, Formula 1 drivers set the example for junior categories. It is critical that junior category drivers learn the importance of using all the safety devices of the car at all times."

As a result, Hamilton, who was handed a 5-place grid penalty for today's race after taking on another engine, whilst also being disqualified from the Sprint qualifying session, is fined €5,000 with an additional €20,000 which is suspended through the end of 2022.

Speculation that the stewards are also considering penalising the British driver for his dress sense, preferring dogs to cats and supporting Arsenal are thought to be wide of the mark… though we wouldn't rule it out.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 15/11/2021 11:35

"@Motorsport-fan....The sheer speed in that Mercedes is 'mega' and 'Joe Bloggs' could win with that performance at one fingertips. It's obvious that there is only one car invested with that performance despite Bottas not being the sharpest knife in the GP kitchen. At this rate Mercedes will have won both WC's by the end of the Saudi race.I do have some questions re the P/U's supplied by Mercedes. Do the units supplied to say, Aston Martin or Williams, for example, come with pre determined mode settings? Can the teams set their own choice of modes during each GP even if they are different? Are Mercedes modes [ used during any race ] the same modes as supplied to their customer teams? As Mercedes are the manufacturer they would be privy to inside data on the modes and the best settings for any given circuit demand. Does this data form part of the customer teams supply?. It strike me that having existing manufacturers supplying so many teams that there exists the possibility of rigging results whereby the customer really doesn't stand a chance of competing with the manu team. I do recall many years ago Williams were criticised after a race for not putting up a more spirited defence with the works Mercedes team in the early formation years of these PU's. Sam Michael responded bluntly by saying 'we don't control the mode selection during a race'. The embedded Mercedes engineers were the ones vested with that authority. Those were the days where modes could be turned up or down during a race."

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2. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 15/11/2021 9:39

"Fully agree with the dress sense penalty, but what a drive. "

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3. Posted by kenji, 15/11/2021 2:05

"There needs to be an infringement awarded to Hamilton for 'bad taste' which would cover many of his indiscretions vis a vis ' visual violation of basic dress sense and the never ending issuance of fatuous statements'. Penalty would be a day spent picking up litter in the favelas, a known remedy that's guaranteed to have mega curative benefits. It should also be noted that Wolff has been awarded the race by race LAM award from Netflix for his amateur efforts during the race. Righteous indignation is never a pretty sight...."

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Hamilton fined for seatbelt infringement

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