Hamilton reprimanded for pitlane incident, keeps pole

The Mercedes driver, who beat teammate Nico Rosberg to secure his 51st Formula 1 pole position, was under investigation for having reversed in the pitlane at the end of Q3, in a breach of Article 28.3 of the sporting rules.

The stewards, however, deemed no penalty was necessary and the Briton will keep his pole position.

"A reprimand has been imposed on the driver due to the fact that no clear instruction was given to the driver on where he should park the car after qualifying," said the stewards.

It is Hamilton's first reprimand of the year.

"I slowed down under the speed limit for quite a long way, trying to figure out which way I was going," explained Hamilton.

"Usually there's a guy standing there telling you which way to go. Basically there was no one there or the guy that was there wasn't looking anyway. So I thought I perhaps had to go in front of that group. Usually we have one-two-three kind of thing.

"So I pulled up ahead of them and no one was there. And that was it really. Then I was on the blue area where we take the photo at the end – I was on it, so I just reversed off it and stopped, so it meant I was in line for the weighing scales."