Hamilton disagrees with FIA penalty as Russell backs Ferrari driver

Lewis Hamilton did not agree with the stewards’ decision to penalise him for his opening-lap incident with George Russell, which pitched the Mercedes driver out of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Russell at Les Combes, with the Ferrari driver going on to finish the Grand Prix in fourth place, six seconds shy of the podium.

Lewis Hamilton disagrees with Belgian GP penalty

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Russell and Hamilton lined up third and fifth on the Spa-Francorchamps grid respectively, with the Mercedes driver ahead of his former team-mate.

Russell struggled for speed as the field charged down the Kemmel Straight, leaving him vulnerable to an attack from Hamilton.

Battling for fourth place, Russell was around the outside of his former team-mate when a snap of understeer pitched Hamilton’s Ferrari into the Mercedes.

Russell spun into the gravel and out of the Grand Prix.

Despite it being an opening-lap incident, the stewards handed Hamilton a five-second penalty, declaring: “During the corner, Car 44 experienced understeer and, despite attempting to avoid Car 63 by applying corrective steering, made contact with the right-hand side of Car 63 with its left-front wheel.

“The stewards determined that Car 63 remained within the available racing room and that the collision was caused by Car 44 being unable to maintain sufficient separation.”

Hamilton, who served his penalty during a Virtual Safety Car pit stop, felt that decision was unfair.

“[It was] unfortunate for him, unfortunate for me,” the seven-time World Champion told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at Spa. “I didn’t want to see that.

“At the end of the race, I did the best job I could with the damage that I had, and then also the penalty.

“I mean, I think it was a racing incident, so obviously I didn’t think it should have been a penalty, but it is what it is.”

He will, however, message Russell, as the last thing he wanted was to take out his former team-mate.

“I’ll text him later on, because we won’t get to see each other – everyone rushes out of here,” he said. “The last thing you ever want to do is come together with your team-mate or with your old team, who you highly respect, and with George. But it happened.”

Russell, though, is by no means holding the collision against Hamilton.

He also believes it was a racing incident, one that he could have avoided had his battery not dropped to “0 per cent” through Eau Rouge.

“Honestly, I think it was a racing incident. He didn’t do it on purpose,” he said.

“Yeah, he was more to blame than I am, but he didn’t do anything reckless.

“I’m just most angry that I was in that position in the first place. I was in a great position out of Turn 1 and I was ready to fight the two guys ahead of me into Turn 5.

“Instead, I got swamped by three drivers.”

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Hamilton went on to finish the Grand Prix in fourth place, just six seconds shy of the podium.

It was, however, a case of what might have been had he not crashed in Saturday’s final practice session, which triggered a chain of events that potentially cost him a podium at Spa.

“Ultimately, it was a difficult weekend,” Hamilton conceded.

“I take responsibility for my incident yesterday [FP3], which then had a knock-on effect with the setup not being right, and then being out of position in qualifying.

“I think with the setup right, we could have been third, second.

“That meant starting further back, and then I was in the position where George obviously looked like he lost power, and then he scooted around the outside and we just had some contact.

“I got damage, and unfortunately it was a pretty unfortunate racing incident. You never want to see that.

“And then in the race, I did the best job I could with the damage that I had.”

Hamilton revealed the damage cost him a significant amount of downforce after he lost part of the floor on his SF-26.

“[As for the] damage, overall, I think we lost a massive amount of downforce. I don’t know what the numbers are, but the front-left section of the floor was gone.”

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