Hamilton demoted, pole position for Maldonado!
Guilty of not bringing the MP4-27 back to the pits with enough fuel, McLaren and Lewis Hamilton are logically penalized by the stewards of the Spanish Grand Prix. Pastor Maldonado inherits the pole position.
Lewis Hamilton’s pole position was hanging by a thread—or rather a drop of fuel, that of his McLaren’s tank—and the stewards have finally made a decision: the Brit will start from the back of the grid after being disqualified from the qualifying session. The reason: the driver did not have enough fuel in his tank to return to the pits with the minimum one liter required by FIA regulations. Martin Whitmarsh had earlier confirmed that there was 1.3 liters of fuel left in the McLaren’s tank.
An incident reminiscent of the one in Canada in 2010, where Lewis Hamilton, once again on pole, had stopped his car on the track, knowing he was too short on fuel to make it back to the pits with the required amount. He wasn’t penalized for it, but the rule was clarified by Charlie Whiting to prevent such a situation from happening again.
It is therefore Pastor Maldonado who claims pole position, the first of his career and the first for Williams since the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Nico Hülkenberg outsmarted all the favorites to start at the front.
More information on the starting grid of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix of Formula 1.
