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F1 fans were left raging after Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was given a three-place penalty for impeding Red Bull driver Sergio Perez during the Dutch Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. The seven-time world champion had a difficult afternoon at the Zandvoort track as he could not replicate his performance from the Friday practice sessions and struggled to match the cars around him.
The Brit's all-important qualifying session started on a dismal note as the stewards noted him for impeding Perez in Turn 9 on his build lap. Hamilton tried his best to avoid the Red Bull driver but moved enough on the track to impede Perez on the latter's fast lap.
The stewards found Lewis Hamilton guilty of his offense and gave him a three-place penalty which demoted him to P15. However, he would start the race from P14 after Alex Albon was disqualified from the session. As per F1.com, the stewards said in their decision:
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“The Stewards determine that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”
F1 fans took to social media to give their reactions to Lewis Hamilton's penalty, with one fan disagreeing with the decision and sarcastically claiming:
"Lewis was supposed to park it in the stands."
"Was Hamilton supposed to drive on the grass to make room for Red Bull?" another fan wrote.
"So to protect the integrity of both max and the championship RB get away with it....very harsh on Lewis," said another fan.
"Easiest decision ever. He could have slowed more or sped up. He had time to do either," wrote a fan.
"That was a slam dunk one. Pity for him, but consistent with earlier decisions," agreed another.
Lewis Hamilton analyzes his qualifying at the Dutch GP
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said the weekend was technically 'done' for him as he qualified in P12 and would start in P14.
Speaking to F1.com, the 39-year-old said:
“It just went downhill like a domino effect from the moment with Checo, then the balance just got more and more snappy, more and more ‘oversteery’ – it was terrible."
"It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but it is what it is. It’s kind of the weekend done and I’ll have to move on to next week [at Monza]," he added.
Lewis Hamilton has previously won a race starting from P14 — the 2018 German GP at Hockenheim. However, it would be difficult for him to repeat the feat as the Zandvoort circuit does not have as many overtaking opportunities as Hockenheim.
