Max Verstappen was impeded by Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix and the Ferrari star has been punished despite the team being mostly to blame
Lewis Hamilton has been handed a three-place grid drop for the Monaco Grand Prix. That is his punishment for impeding Max Verstappen during qualifying, forcing the Red Bull driver to abandon a flying lap after a miscommunication over the radio.
Hamilton was given conflicting information by his Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami. The seven-time Formula 1 champion was initially told to move out of the way with Verstappen coming through, before being informed that the Red Bull racer was actually moving slowly.
Hamilton took that to mean that he could proceed as normal and put his foot down again. But that meant he got in the way of Verstappen who was actually on a flying lap and had to abort to avoid what could have been a dangerous situation.
And even though the team’s mixed messages were the cause of the problem, there was still a sporting penalty to come for Hamilton. He qualified fourth on the road but his grid drop means he will line up seventh at the start of Sunday’s race.
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Explaining their decision, the stewards wrote: “Car 44 [Hamilton] was on a slow lap and off the racing line as he was approaching turn two. Car 1 [Verstappen] was approaching Car 44 on a push lap. The team first informed the driver of Car 44 that Car 1 was on a fast lap. Then they sent another message saying that Car 1 was ‘slowing down’ when in fact Car 1 was always on a push lap and was not ‘slowing down’ as suggested by the team.
“This resulted in Car 44 speeding up and moving into the racing line of Car 1 entering turn three. Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1. We carefully examined the racing line taken by Car 1 in previous laps at the same area and determined that Car 44 did in fact enter the racing line that Car 1 used in previous push laps. This put it beyond doubt that Car 1 was impeded.
“The driver of Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the team immediately after the incident. During the hearing, the fact of the team’s incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of Car 44.
“As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor. We therefore impose the standard penalty of a drop of three grid positions.”
Hamilton gave the air of a man who knew it was coming as he spoke about the incident after qualifying and before that verdict came in. He said: “Qualifying is so much fun around here, but very difficult to keep out of the way of everybody.
“I think I was doing a good job of staying out of the way of everyone, but the team said Max was on a fast lap so I was to the left, and then they said actually, no, he’s not on a fast lap. So I was about to get back on power and accelerated. I was off the line but, for sure, I distracted him a bit.”
Verstappen had also predicted a penalty for his old rival but had absolved the Brit of blame, after discussing it with him in parc ferme post-qualifying. Recalling what happened, the Dutchman pointed the finger at Ferrari for hanging their driver out to dry.
He said: “At the time, you see the car blocking you when you are very high speed, it’s not nice,” he said, explaining why he had yelled “f*** Lewis” in the seconds after the near-miss. “I saw immediately that the team told him that I was on a slow lap while I was clearly driving fast, so it’s not Lewis’ fault.
“I’ve chatted to Lewis about it already. It’s very simple, but it can’t happen. That’s the team’s mistake. If you look at the history of things, yes [I expect Hamilton to get a penalty]. It’s more the team’s fault, but unfortunately in qualifying they are normally quite strict on these things.”