Waiting game for McLaren and Hamilton

Martin Whitmarsh
12 May 2012

McLaren could yet be stripped of their historic 150th pole posted in qualifying for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

The stewards are investigating the reason why Lewis Hamilton was told to stop on his in-lap back to the pits following a stunning performance in claiming his 22nd career pole and third this year at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh insists a technical issue - which he refused to specify - forced their hand and it is not fuel related.

FIA rules state a car must return to the pits after qualifying, and then have a litre of fuel remaining for a sample to be taken.

Whitmarsh claims 1.3 litres was extracted, but the question is if the additional 0.3litres would have been adequate to see Hamilton make it back to the McLaren garage.

If the stewards find against McLaren and Hamilton it will likely result in a grid penalty, handing pole to Williams' Pastor Maldonado after the Venezuelan proved exceptional.

"There was enough fuel to take a fuel sample," said Whitmarsh. "But we stopped the car, we're now talking to the stewards about that, but there was 1.3 litres of fuel taken out of the car.

"The regulations are you have to do that (in) lap unless there is a force majeure. That's the discussion that will probably happen. If it's considered to be force majeure then it's okay."

Asked if there was no force majeure whether Hamilton could have driven back to parc ferme and then had enough fuel for a sample, Whitmarsh replied "yes" on both occasions.

Questioned on whether there was radio evidence to support their claim, Whitmarsh added: "We told Lewis to stop. We knew there was a problem, and Lewis did everything right, everything the team asked of him."

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