LEWIS HAMILTON questioned whether Nico Rosberg‘s controversial pole here in Hungary should have been chalked off.
The German toasted his new £36million two-year contract with Mercedes after beating Hamilton and a stewards’ inquiry into his flying lap.
Questions marks were raised when Hamilton and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo were forced to abort flying laps due to Fernando Alonso’s spin during a crazy qualifying session.
Both drivers reacted to the waved double yellow flags that instruct drivers to slow down and be prepared to stop due to a hazard ahead.
But Hamilton has asked whether Rosberg sufficiently obeyed the instruction at Turn eight and wants the safety rules to be clarified – particularly in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s tragic crash at Suzuka in 2014.
He said: “It is not a case of accepting it. It needs to be clarified.
“All us drivers need to fully understand the yellow flag situation because in the way it’s written is not how it’s interpreted by the stewards or the drivers.
World championship leader Nico Rosberg snatched pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix
“I had to lift because Fernando was on the track but perhaps for Nico the track had cleared, but there were still flags.
“When it’s a yellow flag it says you have to be prepared to slow down or you have to slow down and lose some time.
“When it’s a double yellow it says be prepared for a car or a steward on the track because you don’t know what’s around the corner, so you have to be prepared to stop.
“Nico only lost a tenth through the corner on double yellows where I thought you had to pay more caution to it.
“But if it’s just a tenth that you have to lose, then that’s now different for all us drivers, we can approach it differently.
“I’m not sure that’s the safest approach. We’ve seen instances in the past where, I remember Pastor Maldonado nearly hitting a marshal in Monaco one time because he hadn’t slowed down enough.”
Rosberg defended his lap and took evidence to the stewards FOUR HOURS after he had finished qualifying, where he was eventually cleared.
He said: “I had a big lift and I was also slower in that segment than on previous lap. The rules are very clear and I did what I have to do and that is lift off the throttle.
“I am driving safely out there and if I see waved yellow flags then I am expecting an issue in front. I lifted and lost a fair amount of time.”
However, rival teams were also left questioning how Rosberg was able to set the fastest time of the day, despite lifting off the throttle.
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F1 rules say that drivers should “reduce their speed sufficiently and be prepared to stop” when they see a waved double yellow flag.
The ruling is particularly important given Bianchi’s tragic crash at Suzuka when the FIA said he did not “slow down sufficiently” to prevent his horror accident.
Rosberg escaped any punishment meaning he retained his front spot for today’s GP ahead of Hamilton.
But the Brit is refusing to rule out a record fifth victory here at the Hungaroring.
He said: “I am not too disappointed. I did the best could do and there is a still a long way ahead of us.
“I am just grateful I am in a position to fight for the win.”
It was an unbelievable and chaotic qualifying that was packed with incidents, as Q1 was stopped an incredible FIVE TIMES.
A heavy downpour forced a 20 minute delay to the start of the session as the track was deemed too dangerous to drive on.
And when the action did start, it was soon stopped again after Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, William’s Felipe Massa and Manor’s Rio Haryanto all crashed out.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel hit out at “sleeping” Jenson Button claiming the Brit, who starts in eighth place, was also caught out by Alonso’s incident.
Vettel, who qualified in fifth blasted: “I don’t think it’s fair, we had a yellow at the end and I don’t know why Jenson didn’t move out of the way so I couldn’t close the lap.
“I think he was sleeping.
“Going into Turn 12 he didn’t move [out of the way] and by Turn 13 he realised and did move but by then, yeah, I’d already lost quite a lot of time.”
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