As pointed out by someone else, Lewis was 30kph faster than his following lap. FIA probably decided any passing he did was of the open lobby type and asked him to return the positions.RZS10 wrote:If you check the far offboard replay which was posted here as a gif you can see that Hamilton seemingly had no overspeed relative to Russell from a certain point onwards, he was very likely capable of making the corner whilst already having completed the overtake on Norris.dialtone wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:59 pm[...] Hamilton’s move was so extreme that I would want to see telemetry of his speed there vs next lap because I think Stewards basically saw that he passed Norris because he had no intention of making the corner.
I’m not saying he wasn’t going to make it but his speed was high and he just went straight very quickly after George allegedly pushed him.
Arguably the precedent for this move being perfectly fine was Lewis' own team mate in Spain (highlight vid as a refresher if needed)
That was Russell's position relative to Piastri, the only explanation of why Russell did not have to give the position back is that it was deemed he had completed the overtake:
He bailed before he was actually ran out of road, a bit before the halfway point between apexes:
He then went around the bollard and kept the position ahead of Piastri.
And now for comparison:
I'm relatively certain Norris has no part of his car alongside of Lewis from this point onward, if Russell was deemed to have completed the overtake on Piastri in Spain, then this is certainly the case here.
From the gif mentioned above: a few frames in which Hamilton's position to Russell doesn't change significantly, the logical conclusion is that he has shed any extra speed and is not going significantly faster than Russell, if at all.
The consequence of that is that he would have been fully capable of making the corner if given the space.
He then bails before he is actually ran out of road, a bit before the halfway point between apexes:
He absolutely had to give the position back to Russell, of course - Norris? Not so sure, but definitely not if the FIA/stewards/race control were consistent.
Anyway this didn’t impact race results ultimately given Merc decided to pull in both drivers for mediums.