By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, July 19 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton was cleared of blame after a Ferrari mechanic was knocked over by the seven-time Formula One champion's car during a botched Belgian Grand Prix pitstop on Sunday.
The Briton had to serve a five-second penalty for a collision with Mercedes' George Russell before mechanics could change the car's tyres but Hamilton also wanted the front wing adjusting.
As the mechanic stepped forward to change the setting, the tyre change was completed and the jack dropped, with the green light signal activated and Hamilton's front wheel then knocking the man over.
Formula One stewards said after a hearing that Ferrari had acknowledged an unsafe release and attributed the error "to an inappropriately late instruction for the wing adjustment, a lack of clear communication and the mechanic’s failure to notice the green light".
The team were fined 30,000 euros, with 10,000 suspended for a year.
Hamilton was not punished because he "was in no respect at fault" and had actually been disadvantaged by stopping immediately to be sure the mechanic was clear of the car.
"I am just grateful my mechanic didn’t get hurt," Hamilton, who finished fourth and is now second in the championship to Mercedes' race winner Kimi Antonelli, told reporters.
"I am looking at the lights, and I am supposed to go when the car is dropping. And I went, and then I saw him to my right and stopped as soon as I could.
"All I could think about at the time is when Kimi (Raikkonen) did a leg, and that is what I thought (had happened) initially, but he got up and moved."
A Ferrari mechanic suffered a double leg fracture during the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix after the car driven by Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion with Ferrari, hit him during a pitstop after the light incorrectly switched to green before a rear tyre had been changed.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
