Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes fined a comical amount for speeding in the pit lane

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have been fined €100 for speeding in the pitlane during Friday's practice session in Austria.

Hamilton's W14 clocked 80.2km/h in the pitlane, 0.2km/h over the speed limit. As a result, Mercedes has to bear the fine of €100 fine for a minor breach of the speed limit in the Red Bull Ring.

This is the second fine Mercedes has incurred in recent times, receiving a much bigger fine after the Spanish GP when both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were on the podium. The team was fined €10,000 in Barcelona for breaking parc ferme rules after both drivers' physios entered the podium area, violating the "post-race interview and podium ceremony procedure."

The fine for exceeding the pit lane speed limit (80km/h or 49.7mph) increases based on the extra speed the driver carries through the pitlane. The drivers are fined €100 for each km/h they go above the speed limit, up to €1000. During races, time penalties or drive-through penalties are issued for drivers speeding in the pit lane.

The penalty was first issued after the tragic 1994 San Marino GP and has caught out many drivers ever since.

During Friday's practice session, both Aston Martin drivers were also caught speeding in the pitlane. Fernando Alonso sped 0.9km/h above the 80km/h speed limit, incurring a €100 fine. Lance Stroll tried to beat his teammate in the pitlane speeding 1.3km/h above the limit, receiving a €200 fine.

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Lewis Hamilton elucidates his proposed F1 rule changes after Max Verstappen's blunt response

Lewis Hamilton

Before the Austrian GP weekend, Lewis Hamilton proposed a rule change to halt Red Bull's dominance this season. Hamilton wanted all teams to begin development at the same time, stopping some teams from continuing their dominance over two seasons.

However, reigning champion Max Verstappen cited Hamilton's dominance over the last decade, and concluded that the rule shouldn't be altered. Responding to Verstappen's statement, the Mercedes driver clarified his comments, saying that they were not aimed at the Dutchman.

"It’s not like aimed at any one particular person or anything," Lewis Hamilton is quoted by Crash.net. "It’s just that obviously in my 17 years of being here… before even I got here, you would see periods of dominance. It continues to happen. I think as a sport, we do at some stage – I was really fortunate to have one of thosec periods that Max is having now but with the way it’s going, it will continue to happen over and over again."

The seven-time World Champion argued that prolonged periods of dominance were not good for the sport, and stated that he felt August 1 was a good cut-off time to start on development for the following year.

"I don’t know, maybe that would help everyone be more level and closer the following year." he concluded.