Lewis Hamilton and his team director, Frederic Vasseur, have expressed their outrage after the five-second penalty imposed on the English driver for a collision with George Russell during the first lap of the Belgian GP of Formula 1.
After the race, Vasseur described the penalty as “mega harsh”, arguing that the maneuver did not deserve such punishment. According to him, Russell had enough space to his left, and the situation could be considered a “race incident”.
The accident, which led to Russell being out of the competition, occurred due to an electrical deployment issue in the Mercedes driver’s car, which caused him to lose position to the Ferraris before attempting an overtaking maneuver.
Hamilton explained that his visibility was affected by the turbulent air from the car ahead, Max Verstappen, and that he could not avoid the impact with Russell. “It was a tough weekend for me,” he acknowledged after the race, taking responsibility for a prior accident during practice.
Hamilton served his penalty during a virtual safety car on lap 20, but received a new warning for an unsafe release that endangered a mechanic. The stewards opted for a lighter penalty of five seconds, considering mitigating circumstances such as the typical congestion at the start of the race.
The stewards noted that, despite Hamilton being responsible for the collision, his action had not been aggressive or deliberate, resulting from a loss of front grip during the early laps.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
