Should have Hamilton got a drive through?

[Str8up]

Just looking at a reply of the Monaco GP and noticed that as Hamilton exited the pits on Lap 53 that his front left hand tyre was about 3/4 of the way across the yellow line.

In the I-TV coverage, Brundle then went on to say how they must not cross the yellow line or recieve a drive through penalty.

Does a tyre have to be fully over the line, or just clip it? I think someone at the French GP a few years ago only clipped it and got a drive through.

[ds.raikkonen]

yes, he shud have...the stewards were sleeping i guess

[pRo]

I noticed the same, but wondered if I was seeing things, cause nothing happened and they didn't even show a reply of it.


It has happened many times in Monaco though, in earlier years I mean. I wonder if there's some special rule in Monaco...? And how come the line is yellow in the first place, when it's white everywhere else?

[Mikey_s]

Yup,

I saw that too. In fact it would have made no difference to the result, but I was astonished that this was not protested by Ferrari.

[Tom]

The line is yellow because all the road markings are white. If its yellow it won't confufe the F1 drivers because it can be distinguished from the rest of the street furniture, also it won't confuse traffic as much I presume. From the onboard it looked like Lewis' wheel did cross the line but when it cut back to the camera from St. Devot it looked like he was actually just clear of it. I thought it was very close too and I replayed it on Sky+ but he was no closer than any others. I think just about every car on the race track cut the line a bit at some point during the race.

[Ciro Pabón]

In the I-TV coverage, Brundle then went on to say how they must not cross the yellow line or recieve a drive through penalty.

Does a tyre have to be fully over the line, or just clip it? I think someone at the French GP a few years ago only clipped it and got a drive through.

I don't know about the French GP. The rules say you have to cross the line:

4. Entrance to the refuelling pits
a) the so-called «deceleration zone» is a part of the pits area.
b) during the practice sessions and the race, access to the pits is
allowed only through the deceleration zone. The penalty for a
breach of this rule shall be exclusion from the race.
c) any driver intending to leave the track or to enter the pits or
paddock area shall signal this intention in good time and make
sure that it is safe to do so.
d) except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the
stewards of the meeting), the crossing, in any direction, of the
line separating the deceleration zone and the track is prohibited.
e) except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the
stewards of the meeting), any line painted on the track at the pit
exit for the purpose of separating cars leaving the pits from those
on the track must not be crossed by any part of a car leaving the
pits.

Hamilton only touched it, hence, no penalty.

Beats me why the line should be yellow. Yellow lines, all around the world, separate traffic in opposing senses, white ones traffic in the same sense. FIA, over all, should use international regulations.... what a shame they don't.

[ds.raikkonen]

I think its used bcoz its more striking than other colours...the driver can spot it in an instant...although fluorescent colours might be used

[joseff]

Does a tyre have to be fully over the line, or just clip it? I think someone at the French GP a few years ago only clipped it and got a drive through.

Michael Schumacher, 2002. And he only had 1/2 a tyre over it IIRC, not crossed it.

I saw Lewis doing it too. Maybe the stewards didn't want to ruin a good show? Alonso vs Hamilton is the only story of the race, and giving Hamilton a drive-through (15? 18 seconds worth?) would do nothing for Felipe Massa, who was already 40+ seconds behind. Hence nobody protested.

[wazojugs]

if he had got a drive through for crossing the line, the british press would have complained and the fia would overturn the stewards decision, taking the 40 secs of his time.

therefore he would of won!

[vyselegend]

What exactly is "crossing the line"? Remember you can put a wheel outside of the road course line. I think the only thing you can't do is overtaking while your car is totally outside of the road and cutting turns. (and timed laps are cancelled also)

But the pit lane exit is a different rule. If you look at other series you'll see for the same rule there are many differnet way to apply them. I remember in 2005 I was watching the DTM and the marshals were very severe with the sightiest bite of the pit exit lane, leading to a drive through every time.

During the Monaco race, I didn't see it with Lewis, but at a moment I saw a spyker was exiting pits while Alonso lapped someone with hungry Lewis behind, and when the camera switched to the downward view of Ste Devote, the spyker was on the outer side of the turn, meaning he crossed the line totally, but that was done in order to help let the mac larens pass, so it was apparently ok since nobody told anything. Even the commentators (Laffite I think) applauded the move as a good initiative.
So maybe Monaco is ruling things more flexibly for the F1 GP...

[Str8up]

Maybe it depends if you play tennis or Rugby as to whether the line is 'In' or 'Out'

While is would not have effected Massa, it would have put a different spin on the team orders allegations.