Lewis Hamilton has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix after stewards ruled he unnecessarily impeded Oscar Piastri during qualifying at the Hungaroring.
The seven-time world champion had provisionally secured second on the grid behind McLaren's Lando Norris, narrowly missing out on what would have been a record-breaking 105th pole position. However, the celebratory mood at Ferrari quickly turned when the stewards summoned Hamilton over an incident involving Piastri in the closing moments of Q3.
As the top-10 drivers embarked on their final flying laps, Hamilton — who had just completed his fastest lap — was circulating slowly on the racing line approaching Turn 1. Piastri, on a push lap in the other McLaren, rounded the corner to find the Ferrari driver directly in his path at significantly reduced speed. The Australian was forced to take evasive action, running wide over the track limits and aborting his final attempt. He would ultimately qualify fifth.
The stewards' verdict, citing telemetry, video, radio and in-car footage, stated: "At the approach to Turn 1, Car 44 was travelling at a significantly reduced speed on the racing line while Car 81 was approaching on a push lap." They determined Hamilton had "unnecessarily impeded" Piastri and imposed the standard three-place grid penalty for qualifying infringements.
Hamilton explained that he had not received Ferrari's radio warning about the approaching McLaren in time and that Piastri was not visible in his mirrors due to the car's positioning on track. "I was told literally when he was at the apex behind me," Hamilton said in the post-qualifying press conference. "I had no idea he was coming."
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur took responsibility for the miscommunication. "We told him far too late, and if there's a mistake it's our mistake," he told Sky Sports F1.
The penalty drops Hamilton from second to fifth on the grid, promoting Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to the front row alongside Norris, while Kimi Antonelli moves up to third and Piastri inherits fourth. The Hungarian Grand Prix gets underway at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC) on Sunday.
Sources
- https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1101824/1/lewis-hamilton-slapped-hungary-f1-penalty-crazy-impeding
- https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hamilton-loses-p2-following-qualifying-incident-at-the-hungarian-grand-prix.1svitW7uI3dLQv3ud7Heg6
