Lewis Hamilton was summoned to the stewards office at the European Grand Prix late on Saturday after protests from Nico Rosberg that he had impeded his qualifying performance.
Rosberg of Mercedes, who will start from sixth on the grid, claimed the McLaren driver, second-fastest, had ruined his chances of a better position for Sunday’s race, because he had forced him to slow down just before he started his fastest flying lap in the third qualifying session.
“In this case, me and (Pastor) Maldonado were arriving flat out, and Lewis was driving extremely slowly all of a sudden,” said Rosberg.
“It’s just a very dangerous situation, and that’s what the rule is there for. At the same time, as a side point, it did ruin my lap because I started the lap stuck behind him.”
Following discussions with the stewards, 2008 champion Hamilton was found to have done nothing wrong.
A statement was later issued saying: “The sector time for Car 4 (Hamilton) was actually faster than a time set previously in that same sector by Car 8 (Rosberg), which is an indication that Car 4 was not being driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25.”
“The smallest gap between Car 4 and Car 8 was 18 metres and 1.1 seconds.”
Hamilton will keep his grid position of second alongside pole winner and defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.