Lewis Hamilton gets penalty for impeding Max Verstappen at F1 Monaco GP

Lewis Hamilton has been slapped with a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix after impeding Max Verstappen in qualifying.

In Q1 Verstappen bombed up the hill towards Massenet when he was blocked by Hamilton’s slow moving Ferrari, with Verstappen having to back out of his lap through one of the many blind corners on the circuit.

Hamilton was informed by his race engineer that Verstappen was approaching, but was then mistakenly told the Red Bull driver was slowing down, which prompted Hamilton to start accelerating again.

Both drivers and their team representatives were summoned by the FIA race stewards straight after qualifying, who handed Hamilton a costly three-place grid drop for Sunday’s 78-lap grand prix.

A statement by the FIA stewards said: “Car 44 [Hamilton] was on a slow lap and off the racing line as he was approaching Turn 2. Car 1 [Verstappen] was approaching Car 44 on a push lap. The team first informed the driver of Car 44 that Car 1 was on a fast lap. Then they sent another message saying that Car 1 was ‘slowing down’ when in fact Car 1 was always on a push lap and was not ‘slowing down’ as suggested by the team.

“This resulted in Car 44 speeding up and moving into the racing line of Car 1 entering Turn 3. Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1.

“We carefully examined the racing line taken by Car 1 in previous laps at the same area and determined that Car 44 did in fact enter the racing line that Car 1 used in previous push laps. This put it beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded. The driver of Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the team immediately after the incident.

“During the hearing, the fact of the team’s incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of Car 44. As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor. We therefore impose the standard penalty of a drop of three grid positions.”

The pair spoke straight after qualifying, with Verstappen understanding of the situation Hamilton was in.

“You see the car blocking you and at high speed it’s… not nice, let’s say. But then I saw immediately that the team told him that I was driving slowly while I was clearly driving fast, so it’s not Lewis’ fault,” the reigning world champion said. “I quickly chatted to Lewis about it already. That’s the team’s mistake.”

Hamilton will now line up seventh in the race with Verstappen the first beneficiary to move up from fifth to fourth. Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso also gain a spot on the grid, which will be crucial in a race where overtaking is almost impossible.

Lance Stroll also received an impeding penalty for blocking Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, but his three-place grid drop doesn’t affect his final grid spot. Stroll had already taken a one-place penalty into qualifying for a practice crash with Charles Leclerc.

That dropped him behind Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, but he gains a place because Haas driver Oliver Bearman faces a 10-place penalty, with Stroll’s additional three-place penalty not of any consequence.

“Car 18 [Stroll] was informed that Car 10 [Gasly] was arriving on a fast lap at Turn 10. From the radio communications it appears that Car 18 was not informed/reminded that Car 44 [Hamilton] was also coming and that Car 44 was going to overtake Car 18,” the stewards’ verdict read.

“The driver of Car 18 assumed wrongly that there was only one car to be let by and when Car 44 (which was not on a fast lap) went by him, he moved back to the racing line thereby impeding Car 10 which was on a fast lap.

“During the hearing, the driver of Car 18 stated that he could not tell the colour of the car that had overtaken him because of the position of the sun, which we accepted. He therefore wrongly assumed that there was no other car to be let by. In the circumstances, we imposed the usual penalty of a drop of three grid positions.”