Having fallen just 2.2 seconds behind Austin race winner Max Verstappen, Mercedes racer Hamilton plus sixth-placed Leclerc were then thrown out for running with excessively worn floor planks.
They had contravened the FIA Technical Regulations which states that the plank assembly measured at designated holes can only wear by 1mm down to 9mm across a weekend.
With their rear skids deemed illegal, the standard exclusion penalty for a technical breach was applied.
Post-race scrutineering is part and parcel of motorsport all the way up from a grassroots level. After an F1 contest, an array of temperatures, torques, software, fuel and component checks are carried out.
But these are not uniform across the 20 cars. The sporting regulations permit technical delegate Jo Bauer to carry out “at his discretion, any checks to verify the compliance of the cars entered in the competition”.
Accordingly, no cars had their floors checked following the Japanese GP, one was looked at after the Qatar sprint race and three cars assessed in the immediate aftermath of the full-length Qatar GP.
For Austin, four cars were reviewed. Alongside the Mercedes and Ferrari, Verstappen’s RB19 and (disqualifications applied) runner-up Lando Norris’s McLaren were checked and deemed legal.
Source: Autosport