Lewis Hamilton awarded a 5-second penalty for contact with McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri, keeps his P6 position

Lewis Hamilton was handed a five-second time penalty after making contact with McLaren's Oscar Piastri on lap 41 of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton, who started P8, was having a hard time battling the McLarens since the very start. He also lost position to Norris at the race start after being one of the few drivers who started on hard tires. While he was at the top as well for some time, his pit stop dropped him down to P10 on lap 28 and had been around the region for a very long time.

Later on lap 40, both Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri battled each other out on turn 4 but the latter kept his position. On the very next lap, both drivers made contact on the same corner and went wide. While nothing looked wrong with the Mercedes, Piastri had a damaged front wing. He also complained that Hamilton turned into him and had to pit during the next lap. Hamilton, too, mentioned that his car's rear felt weird.

Later, the stewards slapped Lewis Hamilton with a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with a driver.

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Lewis Hamilton's race position unchanged despite time penalty

Lewis Hamilton was running P6 after the penalty, with Alex Albon behind him. However, Albon's Williams did not have enough power to get any closer to the Mercedes driver. By the final lap, there was a seven-second gap between the two drivers.

This huge gap allowed the seven-time world champion to keep his position despite the five seconds being added to his laptime. With the penalty applied, Albon was over two seconds behind him and Hamilton kept his P6 position. George Russell, who was also given a similar time penalty, also kept his P5 to be right ahead of his teammate.

Mercedes further extended their gap with Aston Martin in the constructor's championship, being second. Ferrari meanwhile overtook the latter to take third place in the championship after Alonso and Stroll finished P9 and P16, respectively.