Lewis Hamilton is given a five-second penalty in the Sprint

Lewis Hamilton gave it his all during the Sprint race at Spa, after starting in 7th position. He could have finished in 4th or even 3rd place if he hadn’t made contact with Sergio Pérez’s car while trying to take his position in a fierce battle. The stewards wasted no time in announcing that this collision was under investigation, before the verdict came out: five-second penalty added to the final time of the British driver. This drops him from 4th to 7th position, while he was at the end of the race battling with Pierre Gasly to snatch 3rd place from him.

“Hamilton was attempting to overtake Pérez on the inside at turn 15. As Pérez left him little room on the inside, Hamilton ran over the curb and subsequently understeered into [Pérez’s car] in wet conditions,” the FIA stated in their press release. “The stewards deem Hamilton to be primarily at fault for the collision and have imposed a 5-second penalty on him.”

And that’s not all: the Mercedes driver also receives two penalty points on his license, the first two this year, out of a total of 12 allowed within a 12-month period.

A sanction that could be considered somewhat severe, if one considers it primarily a racing incident, while the two men were giving us an exciting battle and the Red Bull driver naturally refused to yield his position. However, the “collision” did cause significant damage to the Mexican’s car: a hole in the sidepod, which dropped him down in the standings before ultimately forcing him to retire.

“An unintentional racing incident”

Regardless, the decision has been made, although Mercedes may still appeal the commissioners’ ruling. The team actually informed Hamilton over the radio, at the end of the race, that they were “just as disappointed as he was,” while his message was inaudible.

After the Sprint, Lewis Hamilton commented on the penalty, stating on Sky Sports’ microphone that Pérez “was quite slow and took a wide and slow line coming out of turn 14. I had a great exit, I was more than half a car alongside him and we ended up making contact.”

“It was somewhat of a racing incident, actually,” he explained. “It wasn’t intentional, but they [the stewards] saw it differently. The conditions there were very delicate, and we were all doing our best. “But it doesn’t make a huge difference, whether you finish fourth or seventh in the sprint race, you don’t get many points,” he added, putting it into perspective.