Lewis Hamilton has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Dutch Grand Prix.
The stewards determined that he had impeded Sergio Perez during the first phase of Saturday’s qualifying session.Perez was on his second flying lap on his first set of tyres when he caught Hamilton at turn nine during Q1. The Mercedes driver pulled to the outside of the corner but Perez drifted wide towards him at the exit and slowed, aborting his lap.
“What the fuck is this guy doing?” fumed Perez. “Fucking hell.”
Hamilton had just been told to pit when he was caught by Perez. His race engineer Peter Bonnington first warned him Kevin Magnussen was three seconds behind, then as the Haas passed by he added: “Then you’re going to have Perez, he’s at five seconds. And Perez at two-and-a-half. Perez one-and-a-half.”
When Hamilton saw Perez had slowed down he suggested the Red Bull driver had exaggerated how badly he had been held up. “I don’t understand, I was completely wide at turn nine,” he said. “Tried to make it seem like I got in his way.”
Later Hamilton added: “I was well out of his way.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Perez was able to gain a place in Q2 after taking another set of soft tyres for his final run, but he claimed this wouldn’t have been necessary if Hamilton hadn’t held him up. When told on his radio he had got through Q1 Perez replied: “Yeah, but we fucking waste a set [of tyres].”
After speaking with both drivers, the stewards determined that Hamilton could have done more to avoid getting in his rival’s way.
“The driver of car 44 [Hamilton], being on an in lap, was informed by the team that car 11 [Perez] was approaching on a fast lap when he entered turn eight,” the stewards explained.
“He then drove off line at the exit of turn eight with the intention to give way for Car 11. However, when car 11 arrived, car 44 had already entered turn nine and drove back towards the racing line at the exit of turn nine, 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.”
Hamilton has therefore been relegated to his second-lowest starting position of the season after the Chinese Grand Prix, where he started from 18th. Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen will each be promoted one position each as a result.
Updated 2024 Dutch Grand Prix grid
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Dutch Grand Prix
- Previous technical hires no obstacle to Newey joining Aston Martin – Krack
- Mercedes still unsure whether Spa floor upgrade is working
- McLaren’s Dutch GP upgrade “nowhere near” as significant as Miami package
- “Very hard to pinpoint” why car has become harder to drive – Verstappen
- Only one F1 driver is making worse starts than Norris in 2024
BasCB (@bascb)
24th August 2024, 19:00
Hm, it didn’t look like Hamilton had anywhere to go but onto the grass there, but I guess the Stewards have more info and views than we do.
Kribana (@krichelle)
24th August 2024, 19:08
Problem is that if Hamilton slowed down, he would lose more tyre temperature, but at that time, he was safe into Q2 because that happened on his second attempt in Q1.
SteveR (@stever)
24th August 2024, 20:21
Why would tire temperature matter, as he was going to pit?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th August 2024, 20:34
sky commentary confused the issue
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
24th August 2024, 19:20
Hamilton, a rookie with only 17 seasons of experience, could and should have driven reasonably fast until the part of the circuit, where he can pull off racing line and let cars by. In this case it was literally after the very next corner, but that seems too difficult to understand for somebody who enters the pitlane when it’s closed (2020 Monza), makes practice starts on a live circuit (2020 Sochi) or doesn’t enter the pitlane when it’s open (2022 Saudi Arabia).
MadMax (@madmax)
25th August 2024, 7:18
stupidity of an armchair hate fan
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th August 2024, 20:06
Hamilton didn’t have enough warning from his race engineer. Its clear as mud.
Ben
24th August 2024, 19:42
Time to save the engine and move onto Monza. Take new parts now and park it for the race and hit Monza with everything fresh. Zero point in starting tomorrow from P15 as he’ll struggle to make the top 10.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
25th August 2024, 6:18
if the track is relatively green, then there is plenty of opportunity. if it chances a rain, anything is possible.
J Soulsby (@jmsoulsby)
25th August 2024, 20:15
And so you were proven wrong. More than zero point I think you’ll agree.
Nick T.
24th August 2024, 20:10
What a joke. If you actually look at the onboard from Perez’s car, had he not pulled off the lap so early, Lewis wouldn’t have been in a position to block him and he could have ran his lap just fine.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th August 2024, 21:01
Pretty much, according to the above, he had little to no warning, clearly this falls on his race engineer’s shoulders. I can’t wait to see how he fairs with Seb’s race engineer. Complacency is a nasty foe in the world of competition, and Mercedes wreak of it, especially after having rigged the rules to favor their own design.
Nick T.
25th August 2024, 6:08
No, I meant Perez could have gone by unimpeded had he not lifted off where he did. Only because he aborted so far back did it look like Lewis was impeding him.
SaraJ (@sjzelli)
24th August 2024, 20:18
“I don’t understand derp…” lol. Lewser won’t ever own it.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th August 2024, 20:50
clearly.
w0o0dy
24th August 2024, 21:46
Hamilton seems to be investigated for impeding at some point during each weekend by now. Maybe he needs to realize he needs to up his game?
MadMax (@madmax)
25th August 2024, 7:21
investigated and proven unguilty most of the times. unless some childish crash kid, who uses to crash into his opponents – sim racing and real racing.
An Sionnach
25th August 2024, 0:26
The coverage of this on F1TV was odd. Coulthard pointed out straight away that he could easily have used the throttle to get out of the way. Did any of his colleagues hear what he said? They even brought out the magic big screen and drew things on it to try and prove Sir Lewis’ innocence.
MadMax (@madmax)
25th August 2024, 7:19
coulthard is a red bully, so you know the bias he brings into it.