The reason why Hamilton wasn't penalised for slowing

The FIA has clarified the reasons as to why it didn't find fault with Lewis Hamilton 'slowing' under the safety car, triggering the clash with Sebastian Vettel that led to their so-called 'road rage' incident during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Just prior to the safety car coming in, data shows Hamilton slowed from 80kmh to 54kmh as the cars rounded Turn 15, catching Vettel unawares and resulting in contact between the pair.

Vettel then proceeded to pull alongside Hamilton and 'deliberately' strike the Mercedes' front left wheel in an act of aggression.

With Vettel receiving a 10secs stop-go penalty for the incident, the German was furious to receive his own punishment when he feels Hamilton was the driver at fault for what he termed as 'brake-testing'.

However, the FIA explains Hamilton conducted himself in a correct and 'consistent' manner on all restarts, thus requiring no investigation

"The Stewards examined Hamilton's car data in the Vettel collision. It emerged that Hamilton correctly maintained a consistent speed and behaved in the same manner on that occasion as in all other restarts during the race."

Hamilton himself says he used identical methods on each safety car restart and was surprised it caught Vettel out the second time around.

"By Turn 7 I'm told the Safety Car is going to come in, I'm only allowed a ten car-length gap between myself and the Safety Car whilst the lights are on. Going into Turn 15 I'm more or less around that gap and when I'm going down the hill I can see the lights switch off and at that point I don't need to accelerate and speed up to keep that gap.

"So I kept a consistent pace, a consistent deceleration down to the apex and just didn't speed up... I did that the first time and did that the second time. It was just the second time I got a nudge.

The incident is considered to have been compounded by the unusually long, high-speed run down to the first safety car line around the Baku City Citcuit, forcing drivers to leave a larger gap than usual to the safety car before it peels into the pit lane.

Hamilton was warned by his team on the first safety car restart to be more cautious prior to returning to full speed as he risked catching the safety car before it returned to the pit lane.

Last year's GP2 race was marred by chaotic restarts when Nobuharu Matsushita sped up and slowed down on the run to the line after almost catching the safety car, causing confusing and contact from rivals behind. He was given a one-race ban for the incident.