Lewis Hamilton has discovered the extent of his punishment for colliding with Sergio Perez at the Belgian Grand Prix after the Mercedes star was penalised by the race stewards. The seven-time world champion was handed a five-second penalty in the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps for causing a collision with Perez on the run down to Courbe Paul Frere corner, and he has been handed a double blow following the short race after receiving two penalty points.
Hamilton had been homing in on Perez since the safety car restart as the pair battled for fourth place on the track in the 11-lap race, and as the 38-year-old squeezed his car alongside the Red Bull, it appeared he had got the job done.
However, the slippery conditions caused the 103-time race winner to understeer into Perez, who picked up heavy damage to the sidepod of his RB19 as a result.
Hamilton held onto fourth place and chased down Pierre Gasly while Perez struggled for grip and eventually skidded off into the gravel, sending him tumbling down the order. Eventually, he retired – and Hamilton picked up a penalty.
The FIA race stewards saw it fit to investigate the collision between the two drivers, despite the damp conditions and lack of visibility making it also inevitable that some cars would make contact.
And it was later decided that Hamilton would serve a five-second time penalty after he was deemed to be at fault for the damage to Perez’s car.
With cars close to each other in the top eight, Hamilton was demoted from fourth to seventh after crossing the finish line, with only a tenth separating him and his team-mate George Russell. It means Mercedes take only three points from the sprint, while Ferrari and McLaren scored significant points.
Hamilton had gone into the race weekend with no penalty points against his record as previous incidents are wiped out after 12 months if the driver does not exceed 12 points on their licence.
But he will now need to watch his conduct on the racetrack after having two points added at Spa.
The Silver Arrows star got some backing from Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle, who labelled the penalty “harsh”.
“I thought it was a racing incident and thought the penalty was harsh. I’ll stand by that, having now watched and analysed it again,” he said on Sky F1’s live commentary.
And Hamilton also felt the penalty was undeserved, cescribing it as more of a ‘racing incident’, due to Perez’s slow pace.
“He was pretty slow and went slow through turn 14. I got a great exit and I was more than half a car alongside him, and we just ended up coming together.
“I think it was just a racing incident and it wasn’t intentional. But they saw it differently. It was very difficult conditions out there and we were all trying out best.
“It doesn’t really make a huge difference for us, fourth or seventh in a Sprint race where you don’t get a lot of points. It’s not the worst thing in the world.”
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