Lewis Hamilton punishment leaves Button ‘amazed’ as FIA reach verdict

Missing a reported 10 braking zones in his final laps in Singapore, Jenson Button was “amazed” that Lewis Hamilton only received a five-second penalty for his track limit violations.

Hamilton was one of only three drivers to opt for a two-stop strategy at the Marina Bay circuit, Ferrari bolting on a set of soft tyres on lap 46 of the 62-lap race.

Jenson Button was ‘amazed’ by Lewis Hamilton’s penalty

With the tyre delta firmly in his favour, Ferrari ordered Charles Leclerc to give way to his teammate to see if Hamilton could overtake Kimi Antonelli for fifth.

However, closing in the Mercedes’ rear wing, Hamilton’s brakes began to let go.

“I saw my brakes were getting hot but it didn’t say they were at the max. I went into T14 and sparks came off, my pedal went long. So grateful I still made the corner!”

But hit with one track limit violation after the other, Hamilton missed a staggering 10 braking zones as he struggled to slow down for the corners.

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Shown the black-and-white flag, the Briton was given a five-second penalty for track limit violations but questioned that with his race engineer Riccardo Adami as he felt it was “force majeure”.

The stewards explained that Hamilton “was trying to manage a brakes issue situation”, that was “not a justifiable reason” and therefore applied the “usual” five-second penalty for track limit violations.

The seven-time World Champion dropped from seventh to eighth in the overall classification.

Former F1 driver and 2009 World Champion Jenson Button weighed in, saying he was perplexed by the penalty given the number of times Hamilton went wide.

“Honest, I’m amazed. Five seconds? Doesn’t sound like a lot for the amount of apexes that… the amount of corners he didn’t go around.”

Asked if that had ever happened to him, he revealed: “No, not in a race. I had it in testing a lot of 23 years ago, but not a race. Normally, you feel it as well, and the team know that they’re getting a bit hot.”

His fellow pundit Jamie Chadwick was a bit more sympathetic towards Hamilton’s plight.

“He lost a huge amount of lap time, but then cutting everything. I think that’s where the penalty came from.

“So it’s kind of double whammy- no brakes, just trying to get around, and then you get a penalty.”

But one person who was definitely not sympathetic was Fernando Alonso, given Hamilton, who was directly ahead of him on the track, was clearly struggling with a car that was losing its brakes.

“I cannot believe it. I cannot f**ing believe it. I cannot f**ing believe it!” raged the Aston Martin driver. “I mean, I cannot f**ing believe it. I cannot f**ing believe it. Is it safe to drive with no brakes?

“Five seconds, minimum.

“For me, you cannot drive when the car is not safe, you know. Sometimes, they try to disqualify me with no mirror, and now you have no brakes, and everything is fine? I doubt it.”

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