Belgian GP: Williams fined for breach of tyre rules

It was announced that the Williams Martini team had been fined €10,000 for a breach of tyre rules during Friday practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The breach was in regard to how teams are supposed to return one set of tyres from their allocation after the first forty minutes of opening practice. There are instances where this can be delayed such as in the case of a red flag.

But even though there was a red flag as a result of Felipe Massa's crash during the first Friday practice session the Williams team was found to have run one of its nominated sets on Lance Stroll's car at 11:09am and 11:21am local time. This was an hour after Felipe's crash.

After looking into the matter the FIA decided that a fine was necessary when taking into account previous offences.

A statement from the race stewards said: "Having considered the facts the Stewards accept that the infringement was inadvertent.

"The Stewards have taken due note of repeated offences concerning tyres by the team and a similar infringement for which a suspended fine was imposed."