Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the United States Grand Prix, costing him second place in the process.
The Mercedes driver had produced an encouraging drive during Sunday's race in Austin, only finishing 2.225 seconds adrift of already-crowned world champion Max Verstappen.
That was despite Mercedes making a mistake earlier in the race, costing the Briton time that seemingly proved decisive, yet it became irrelevant when it emerged that Hamilton, as well as Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, had breached car regulations after the race.
When their respective Mercedes and Ferraris were being inspected, it was found that there had been excessive wear on the underfloor skid blocks.
Essentially, the two vehicles were too low, which can provide them with a speed advantage, and had initially being put down to an upgrade to the Mercedes.
Hamilton and Leclerc disqualified for plank wear irregularities on their cars following an inspection by an FIA technical team
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While that may prove true in some aspect, there will now be doubts over whether Hamilton's Mercedes had made the kind of improvements that can help his cause in the upcoming Grand Prixs, starting in Mexico this week.
With Hamilton losing his runner-up spot, McLaren's Lando Norris and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr have been promoted to second and third position respectively.
Further down the order, Pierre Gasly posts an impressive sixth in the Alpine, while there is a landmark moment for Williams driver Logan Sargeant whose 10th place gives him his first-ever Formula 1 point at his home Grand Prix.
In terms of the Championship standings, Hamilton is now 39 points adrift of second-placed Sergio Perez, and remains just 18 ahead of Fernando Alonso in fourth spot.
Norris is also up to sixth, now eight points ahead of Leclerc, while he is just 24 points behind fourth place as a result of his additional three points.
Darren Plant
