Hamilton revealed that he argued his Silverstone false start penalty, and the FIA “agreed” with his protest. Hamilton picked up a fourth penalty in his last three race weekends in Hungary, these sanctions costing him “a lot of points.”
Hamilton is on quite the unfortunate streak when it comes to picking up penalties. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, he received his fourth sanction in just three race weekends after exceeding the pit -lane speed limit by just 0.1 km/h.
You can add that one to his five-second false start penalty at Silverstone, five seconds for collecting George Russell at Spa, and three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri at the Hungaroring.
It was revealed that stewarding and driving standards would be discussed at the Hungarian GP in the drivers’ briefing. The Spa incidents between Hamilton and Russell, and Charles Leclerc/Oscar Piastri, were to top the agenda.
Hamilton shed further light on those talks.
In Hungary, Hamilton complained over Ferrari radio that the stewards had been “handing out penalties like crazy.”
He added: “Every opportunity that I give those stewards, every single time they give me a penalty!”
Speaking with the media post-Hungarian GP, Hamilton said: “The last two races have been pretty bad from my side.
“I mean, Silverstone was my fault at the start.
“We did talk, in the drivers’ briefing, about the fact that they’re inconsistent with this stuff.
“There’s been drivers in the past that have moved and haven’t been penalised, and we discussed with them the fact that as long as you’re not moving when the lights are on, you shouldn’t be penalised, because I wasn’t out of my box.
“They agreed. So they’re looking into that.
“The last race, even the driver [Russell] that I collided with said it was just a racing incident.”
He did, though, accept his three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during Q3 in Hungary.
Piastri approached a slow-moving Hamilton at T1 and was forced to bail out of his lap. He gave Hamilton a sarcastic thumbs up as he drove past for good measure.
“The one yesterday was really just unfortunate,” Hamilton reflected. “I take responsibility. I should have looked at my mirrors.
“But I thought everyone would have been at the end of their first lap, and the information I got was right by the time he was behind me. So that was a communication error.”
Hamilton remains P2 in the Drivers’ Championship going into the summer break. But, Kimi Antonelli was able to extend his lead to 50 points with P3 in Hungary, while Hamilton was classified fifth.
