Lewis Hamilton will head into his first home race as a Ferrari driver next weekend at Monza with a significant setback.
The seven-time world champion has been handed a five-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix after being found in breach of safety protocols during the build-up to Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Ahead of the start in Zandvoort, drivers took their usual reconnaissance laps to the grid. However, race director Rui Marques had issued extra precautions because of the Dutch circuit’s unique high-speed banked final corner leading directly onto the main straight and pit entry.
“Due to the nature of the track, the Race Director had informed all participants that the last corner before the pit lane would have double yellow flags waved,” the FIA stated.
“This was to ensure the safety of those on the grid and in the pit lane. The regulations require that any driver passing through a double waved yellow flag marshalling sector ‘reduce speed significantly’.”
According to the stewards, Hamilton failed to comply sufficiently on two consecutive out-laps, leading to the sanction.
Telemetry Under Scrutiny
Officials conducted a lengthy review, cross-referencing FIA systems with Ferrari’s own telemetry data.
“We looked through the available telemetry within the FIA system,” the stewards explained. “We also requested the team to provide us with their telemetry data. All of this took some time and this decision was delayed as a result.
©Ferrari
“In addition, Article 44.1 requires all drivers covering more than one reconnaissance lap to drive down the pit entry road at ‘greatly reduced speed’. The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10% to 20% and had lifted and braked 70 metres earlier when entering the pit lane.
“We did not consider that a 20kph reduction in speed at a double waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly’. We also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry road as being at a ‘greatly’ reduced speed.”
Reduced Penalty After Mitigating Factors
Normally, such an offence would carry a 10-place grid drop. But the stewards acknowledged Hamilton’s partial attempts at slowing down – and perhaps also the seven-time world champions impeccable safety record.
“The penalty guidelines for such an infringement would ordinarily attract a penalty of 10 grid positions at the next race. However, given that the driver had made an attempt to reduce his speed and to brake earlier, we took that into account as mitigating circumstances and imposed a five-grid place penalty.”
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Hamilton also collected his first two penalty points of the past 12-month period. Overall, it was a day to forget for the Scuderia charger whose race ended prematurely after a crash at Turn 3.
Leclerc Avoids Sanction in Russell Clash
While Hamilton’s penalty dominated the headlines, his team-mate Charles Leclerc escaped without punishment for a robust move on George Russell at Turn 12.
The stewards explained:
“Both drivers felt that this was a racing incident and that there should be no further consequence to either driver for the incident. We reviewed all the available evidence and arrived at the same conclusion. We accordingly took no further action.”
Leclerc’s race also ended in disappointment when he was later taken out by Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, compounding Ferrari’s frustrations. Antonelli was handed a 10-second penalty for his ill-inspired move and two penalty points.
Hamilton’s Monza debut in Ferrari red was already set to be a high-pressure occasion, with Tifosi expecting fireworks.
The grid penalty now guarantees a more difficult Sunday for the Briton, who will need to fight through the field if he is to deliver a dream result for the Scuderia on home soil.
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