Lewis Hamilton-Alex Albon incident: British driver earns a 5-second penalty after colliding with Alex Albon, who was clearly overtaking.
Lewis Hamilton received a huge setback in the inaugural race of the 2020 season after he picked a 5-second penalty for barging in Red Bull’s Alex Albon, while the latter was on the verge of overtaking him.
Mercedes looked dominant on the track with its supreme pace, but Albon was challenging Hamilton for the second spot, and his entourage even decided to apply soft tyres to add more pace on the care in order to topple Hamilton.
Even though Albon was able to overtake the British driver, he eventually crashed into Red Bull car which made Albon spin over the track and lost his momentum in the race.
Lewis Hamilton-Alex Albon incident: Watch the video
With this incident, Hamilton received a 3-second penalty, but it was atrocious to see Sergio Perez getting similar punishment for speeding in the pit lane, which is a much inferior offence.
Nevertheless, Hamilton was set to get on the podium, but this penalty brought him done in the order, courtesy to 2 safety cars which levelled the deficit caused to the other teams in the initial phase of the race.
Podium received by Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris
The penalty to Hamilton surely benefitted Leclerc and Norris, as they received the 2nd and 3rd spot on the podium. Leclerc was impressive in the last phase of the race where he made his astronomical rise.
Whereas, Norris was brilliant throughout the race and his hard work made him end up at the 3rd spot, a crucial and brilliant start to McLaren in the season.
