At the 2023 Belgian GP Sprint affected by rain, the five-second time penalty given to Lewis Hamilton following his collision with Sergio Perez became the talk of the town. Hamilton, however, did not seem too bothered about the whole situation. Following the race, he even joked that if it were Daniel Ricciardo instead of Perez, he would have gladly shunted him off the track.
Hamilton made contact with Perez on lap six of the 11-lap Sprint race in Spa. The seven-time world champion sent his Mercedes down the inside at turn 15, but he soon understeered and made contact with Perez’s car. As a result, there was a huge hole in the RB19’s sidepod, causing him to lose grip and several positions in a matter of seconds.
🎥: Incident between Hamilton and Perez that lead to the 5-sec penalty #F1 #BelgianGP
— F1 Naija 🇳🇬 (@f1_naija) July 29, 2023
Perez’s race was completely ruined and he was forced to retire the car. Nevertheless, the F1 community was split in two with one part claiming that the penalty was justified, while the other part claimed that it was too harsh a penalty for a simple racing incident.
Lewis Hamilton jokes about his incident with Perez
Following the race, Hamilton had to answer a lot questions related to his shunt with Perez. He insisted that according to him it was a racing incident. However, he seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole issue. Especially because he didn’t lose out on a lot of points.
One of the journalists, while talking to Hamilton, confused Perez with Ricciardo. She said, “I want to ask you first of all about the contact with Daniel. Because obviously that penalty.” Hamilton immediately corrected her and said it was Checo.
Interviewer: “I want to ask you first of all about the contact with Daniel because obviously that penalty- erm Checo! Sorry, Daniel was just about to come here.” Lewis, referring to Daniel: “Yeah, I’d definitely shunt him off!”
by u/notimetosmoke in formula1
Hamilton then joked about wanting to force Ricciardo off the track intentionally. “Yeah, I’d definitely shunt him off!” he said, with a smile on his face. The journalist then explained that she got confused because Ricciardo was supposed to come for the interview next.
Hamilton does not really care about the Sprint result
Lewis Hamilton also mentioned that he wasn’t too bothered because moving down to P7 from P4 didn’t cost him a lot of points. He commented, “It’s not the end of the world.”
The Mercedes driver also quoted the Great Ayrton Senna to back up his actions that led to the collision between him and Perez. He explained that Senna had always said that a racing driver must go for a gap, which is what he did.
In the end, Mercedes did not protest the decision. According to Toto Wolff, it was better to move on. Hamilton on the other hand, only wanted to focus on giving his best at the Grand Prix on Sunday.
