Lewis Hamilton details recent penalty run and talks with F1 Stewards

Hamilton accepts responsibility but questions consistency

Lewis Hamilton has detailed conversations with Formula 1 stewards after collecting four penalties across the last three grands prix in Great Britain, Belgium and Hungary.

The seven-time champion received three five-second time penalties and a three-place grid drop during that run. As Hamilton calls for consistency after his Hungarian GP penalty run, the incidents have carried a significant points cost, even though Hamilton accepts that he was not blameless in each case.

“The last two races [before Hungary] have been pretty bad from my side,” Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365. He added that he took “ultimate responsibility” for the sequence of events.

Three race penalties, one qualifying setback

At Silverstone, Hamilton was penalised for a false start after moving briefly before the lights went out. He maintained that he did not jump the start and finished third.

The Ferrari driver then received a five-second penalty at Spa for causing a first-lap collision with George Russell. Hamilton described the contact as a racing incident, while Russell also said it was not deserving of a penalty. Hamilton served the sanction during a well-timed virtual safety car period and finished fourth.

In Hungary, a five-second penalty for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit by 0.1kph dropped him from fourth on the road to fifth behind team-mate Charles Leclerc. The most damaging incident came in qualifying, when Hamilton was demoted three places for impeding Oscar Piastri at Turn 1. That erased his second place on the road and left him starting fifth.

Hamilton’s explanation

Hamilton said the Silverstone decision had been discussed during the drivers’ briefing, where he believed drivers and stewards had agreed that movement before the lights should not be penalised if a car was not moving when the lights were on and had not left its box.

“There have been drivers in the past that have moved and haven't been penalised,” he said, adding that the stewards were looking into the matter.

On the Piastri incident, Hamilton accepted the central error. He said he should have checked his mirrors, but believed the other cars would have reached the end of the first lap. He attributed the obstruction to a communication error, leaving the recent penalty run as a mixture of disputed judgments, minor margins and mistakes he was prepared to own.