F1 | Hamilton penalised 3 places for impeding Perez

It wasn’t an easy Friday for Lewis Hamilton, eliminated in Q2 despite Friday’s hopes that something different would happen. After the disappointment of his early exclusion, the Englishman was also handed a three-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s GP for having hindered Sergio Perez in qualifying.

During qualifying, in fact, the Red Bull driver was approaching turn nine during his fast lap but, at that moment, he found Hamilton on the trajectory, with the Mexican therefore having to change trajectory to avoid the seven-time world champion.

At that moment, Perez immediately showed his disappointment over the radio, also because, as he remarked later, having lost that lap certainly pushed him to use a second set of soft tyres, even if, realistically, he would have used it anyway to get through the round.

The stewards investigated the case and handed Hamilton a three-place grid penalty, dropping him from 12th to 15th on Sunday’s starting grid.

“The driver of car 44 [Hamilton] was informed by the team that car 11 [Perez] was approaching on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8,” the stewards wrote in their verdict, noting that Hamilton had been warned by the pit wall, so much so that it had in fact moved wide so as not to obstruct his trajectory. However, by the time Perez reached the offending section, Hamilton found himself on the ideal line, unable to even move because he would have cut off the Mexican.

“Hamilton then drove off the racing line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention of letting Car 11 pass. However, as Car 11 arrived, Car 44 [Hamilton] had already entered Turn 9 and returned to the ideal line at the exit of Turn 9, thus clearly hindering Perez,” the statement said.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

According to the stewards, although Hamilton attempted to move off the ideal racing line, the Englishman could have slowed down more to avoid obstructing Perez, and so they concluded that the Mercedes driver’s manoeuvre should be penalised: “The Stewards determine that, although there was an appropriate warning from the team and although the driver attempted to move, he could have slowed down more to avoid obstructing the other car. Therefore, a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions”.

Speaking before the penalty, Hamilton did not hide his disappointment with the qualifying result given that, unless there is a very eventful race, it will be difficult to recover in Zandvoort, where overtaking is extremely complicated.

“From the moment the incident with Perez happened, it just kind of spiraled out of control. And then the balance got weirder and weirder, more and more oversteer. And, yeah, it was terrible. It’s very, very frustrating, of course, but it is what it is. The weekend is over and we can move on to next week,” Hamilton said.