Lewis Hamilton saw his Belgian GP Sprint go from good to bad within a matter of seconds after he was slapped with a five-second time penalty by the stewards. This was a result of his colliding into Sergio Perez’s RB19 while battling for P4 on the grid. However, Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle instantly criticized the FIA for what he believed was a harsh penalty.
Tyre marks can be seen on the cooling structures underneath the sidepods of Checo’s car 😳
[F1TV] #F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/Z6P20WSDY9
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) July 29, 2023
The five-second penalty cost Hamilton dearly. Even though he finished P4 on the track, he was demoted down to P7, with the two Ferraris and Lando Norris getting a jump on him.
🎥: Incident between Hamilton and Perez that lead to the 5-sec penalty #F1 #BelgianGP
— F1 Naija 🇳🇬 (@f1_naija) July 29, 2023
Hamilton was naturally very frustrated about the whole thing. Following the Sprint, he said that according to him it was nothing more than a racing incident. Hamilton said, “It wasn’t intentional but they saw it differently so…”
Martin Brundle backs up fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton
Following the penalty, Martin Brundle immediately came to the defense of Lewis Hamilton. The 64-year-old commented, “Lewis can’t just evaporate.” Brundle got an approval from his co-commentator David Croft as well who also claimed that this wasn’t the first time Hamilton received a harsh call.
“Lewis can’t just evaporate” – Martin Brundle
Crofty also agrees and says that it’s not the first time in history Lewis gets a harsh penalty. #F1 #BelgianGP— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) July 29, 2023
Brundle explained that he believes it was a racing incident and he stands by his comments about the penalty being unjust. He said, “What is racing? if that’s not racing then I don’t know.” He reminded everyone that Hamilton didn’t intentionally crash into Perez’s Red Bull.
However, things were quite different from Perez’s point of view. The Mexican driver told Sky Sports that Hamilton just barged into him and broke his sidepod which ruined his race completely.
#BelgianGP 🇧🇪: Toto Wolff says the penalty against Lewis was very harsh – especially considering the track conditions.
— deni (@fiagirly) July 29, 2023
Toto Wolff on the other hand, also backed up Hamilton, and claimed that the penalty was too harsh, especially considering the situation under which they were racing.
Hamilton not too disappointed with the whole ordeal
The collision between Hamilton and Perez left the Red Bull driver with a huge amount of damage to his sidepod. After losing his P4 to Hamilton, he lost all rear grip and kept losing more and more positions till he finally went off track. The team then asked him to come into the pits and retire the cars to avoid further damage.
oh he’s chilling!!!! lol pic.twitter.com/ctnz1bMGLp
— deni (@fiagirly) July 29, 2023
As for Lewis Hamilton, he finished P7 and will get two points from the Sprint Race. However, that does not really bother him much. Hamilton said, “It doesn’t really make a huge difference, 4th or 7th in the Sprint race, you don’t get a lot of points.” He is more focused on the main race tomorrow and wants to come away with a good result.
