Tyre Penalty Rattles Rookie's Charge for Title

Lewis Hamilton has been warned by motor sport's governing body to curb his celebrations if he wins the world championship in the Brazilian grand prix here tomorrow. And last night he was called before the race stewards to explain why his McLaren-Mercedes team had broken the regulations by using two sets of wet tires on his car during the first of yesterday's two practice sessions, which he completed with the day's fastest time.

Hamilton and McLaren were fined €15,000 (£10,500) and had one set of wet tyres removed from their allocation for today's qualifying session, which could make it harder for the Briton to achieve his aim of starting the race tomorrow from pole position as he attempts to retain his lead of four points over his team-mate Fernando Alonso and seven points over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. "It's quite a small mistake, which did not give us an advantage," Hamilton said.

It emerged yesterday that before the Chinese grand prix a fortnight ago, at which the 22-year-old could have won the title, his team were told by the FIA that he should not dance or hug his father in the aftermath of victory. The ruling remains in force this final weekend of the season.

Several years ago the FIA imposed a regulation, on the grounds of safety, to prevent winning drivers from stopping during their lap of honor to pick up their national flag. The new stipulation appears to have been created in order to avoid exacerbating the tensions between Hamilton and Alonso, the defending world champion, whose rivalry has degenerated into open warfare.

It will also be seen, inevitably, as a further development in the long-running feud between Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal and Hamilton's long-time backer, and Max Mosley, the FIA president. The fact that Hamilton stands to become formula one's first mixed-race champion makes it seem questionable that Mosley's governing body should appear to be singling him out.

Although Hamilton has won four grands prix in his debut season, and has led the series for the past six months, his way of celebrating victory has never been viewed as exceptional in any way and his exemplary conduct off the track has led Bernie Ecclestone to acclaim him as the sport's finest ambassador. His father, Anthony, has been his mentor throughout his career.

Questioned on the matter last night, Dennis referred to the "hypersensitive environment" in which the climax to the 2007 season is being played out. "We're in a heightened atmosphere of compliance, let's put it that way," he said.

Jean Todt and Flavio Briatore, respectively the principals of the Ferrari and Renault teams, denied all knowledge of the FIA's ruling, a de facto confirmation that it was aimed specifically at Dennis' team. Last month McLaren were excluded from the constructors' championship and fined $100m (£50m) by the governing body after being found guilty of using confidential technical information passed on by a member of the Ferrari team.

Hamilton took to the track yesterday to face the seventh new circuit of his formula one career and handled the unfamiliar challenge of Interlagos with his customary aplomb. After taking it steadily in the morning's wet conditions, he set the fastest time in the afternoon session, after the track had dried out.

"I enjoyed finally getting out on this amazing track," he said. "It was just a shame that the conditions were not great this morning and we couldn't do as much running as we would have preferred. However, it was good to get a feel for the track, and we made reasonable progress on the setup work and tire comparison despite the cold conditions."

Alonso sat out the wet first session but was still upbeat after lapping only 1/10th of a second slower than Hamilton in the second session. "The session this afternoon was far better than this morning," he said. "By the afternoon the track had dried out and it was clear that the conditions were improving. I am looking forward to a competitive weekend."