Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has received a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix after impeding Sergio Perez in qualifying.
Red Bull driver Perez came up on Hamilton in Q1 through the slow right-hander of Turn 9, and while Hamilton remained on the outside on the corner, Perez still had to get off the throttle on the exit to avoid the Mercedes.
At the time, Perez yelled “What the **** is this idiot doing?” on his team radio, while Hamilton felt he was “well out of his way”.
The stewards disagreed with Hamilton and handed him a three-place grid penalty, which demotes him from 12th to 15th on Sunday’s grid.
“The driver of car 44 [Hamilton], being on an in-lap, was informed by the team that car 11 was approaching on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8,” the stewards wrote in their verdict.
“He then drove off line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention to give way for Car 11. However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and drove back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, thereby clearly impeding Car 11.
“The Stewards determine that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Speaking before the penalty, Hamilton already felt the weekend was lost after starting outside the top 10 on the twisty Zandvoort circuit, where overtaking is extremely difficult.
“It just went downhill like a domino effect from the moment with Checo,” he said. “And then the balance just got more and more snappy, more and more oversteery. And, yeah, it was terrible. It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but it’s is what it is.
“That’s kind of the weekend done and can move on to next week.”
The incident ruined Perez’s first Q2 run, meaning he had to use an extra set of tyres to advance, which he then ended up missing in the deciding Q3 shootout.
“That was unfortunate, I think it was just wrong time, wrong moment,” the Mexican elaborated on his view.
“Lewis was on the racing line, so there was nothing I could do other than fitting another set [of tyres], which was very costly then in Q3.
“The stewards have been really strict this year, I’ve got penalties for a lot worse than that. So I do expect him to get a penalty, unfortunately.
“I think our qualifying could have looked a bit different with two sets.”
