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Lewis Hamilton will take a five-place grid penalty for his first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari Formula 1 driver as a punishment for a pre-race yellow flag infringement at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The stewards announced before the start at Zandvoort that Hamilton would be investigated for failing to sufficiently respect double waved yellow flag conditions approaching the pit entry at the end of his first reconnaissance lap before forming up on the grid.
The double waved yellow was in place at Zandvoort due to the exposed nature of the pit entrance and back end of the starting grid at the circuit, which in 2025 was hosting F1 for the penultimate time under its current deal.
The stewards said the yellows were "to ensure the safety of those on the grid and in the pitlane".
Hamilton went on to crash out of the race. Three and a half hours after the finish the stewards announced that he would take a grid drop for next weekend's Monza event.
The stewards' ruling cited the requirement to "reduce speed significantly" under double waved yellows and for anyone conducting more than one reconnaissance lap to "drive down the pit entry road at ‘greatly reduced speed’".
They ruled that while Hamilton had slowed relative to the speed of his pit entries in practice, it had not been sufficient - though he had done enough to only get a five-place grid drop rather than the 10-place penalty that could have been awarded.
"The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20km/h less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10% to 20% and had lifted and braked 70 metres earlier when entering the pitlane," said the stewards' verdict.
"We did not consider that a 20km/h reduction in speed at a double waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly’.
"We also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry road as being at a ‘greatly’ reduced speed.
"The penalty guidelines for such an infringement would ordinarily attract a penalty of 10 grid positions at the next race. However, given that the driver had made an attempt to reduce his speed and to brake earlier, we took that into account as mitigating circumstances and imposed a five grid place penalty."
Hamilton also gets two penalty points on his licence, but these are his first of the current 12-month period.
Hamilton's verdict on his crash
Considering he crashed out through his own error just 22 laps into the Dutch GP, Hamilton's mood had been relatively upbeat - at least prior to his penalty being decided.
He admitted the accident was “definitely painful” and that his slide into the Hugenholtz barrier on his out-lap “took me by complete surprise”, but felt that overall his Zandvoort weekend had been a promising step forward over the miserable Spa and Hungaroring races before the summer break.
Hamilton had been closely matched with team-mate Charles Leclerc through practice and qualifying and ran seventh in the race’s first stint.
“I've felt lots of positives, I've felt like I was making progress, I was catching the car ahead,” he said.
“It's tough to have a result like that for sure, but I've been racing for so long, I've had God knows how many races in my life. You can probably count it on one hand, that sort of incident for me.”
Speaking before he knew he’d have a five-place grid penalty to contend with there, Hamilton admitted that his first Italian GP for Ferrari next weekend would put him under the microscope.
“There's obviously a huge amount of pressure on us as a team, and then more so on me now because I haven't had a good season,” he said.
“Next week we'll just try to absorb all the energy from the fans.”
No penalty for Leclerc or Russell
Leclerc had also been probed by the stewards over his mid-race battle with Mercedes’ George Russell, which raised question marks over whether Leclerc had completed his moves while outside track limits and also featured contact that caused pace-limiting damage for Russell.
In that instance, the stewards were happy to dismiss the situation as not requiring any penalty.
“Both drivers felt that this was a racing incident and that there should be no further consequence to either driver for the incident,” said their ruling.
“We reviewed all the available evidence and arrived at the same conclusion. We accordingly took no further action.”
Russell felt the damage cost him a second per lap, though he was still able to finish fourth.
“I don't think I've ever seen somebody attempting to overtake on the outside of that corner because just the natural racing line, you go to the gravel yourself,” he told Sky F1.
“So I didn't push him into the gravel, I was just taking my line and he was obviously fully off the track.
“It looks like a cool move, but it kind of ruined my race thereafter.”
Leclerc felt everything he’d done was within reasonable boundaries given Ferrari and Mercedes are battling for second in the constructors’ championship.
“I'll always be aggressive like that,” he said. “It was on the limit, but I knew I wouldn't have many opportunities after that.
“He defended the inside, I went for the outside, I don't think he expected me to go for the outside and then he did the corner just like I wasn't there. And then we touched.”
Leclerc on his Antonelli tangle
A later incident with a Mercedes had worse consequences for Leclerc, as a touch from Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli on Leclerc's out-lap from his second stop put him into the barriers and out of the race.
“On a track like this you kind of need to be aggressive - but that was too much,” was Leclerc’s summary.
Antonelli held his hands up and agreed with that summary.
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“I knew that was probably the best chance I had to make the move because I was very close to him - he had colder tyres and I just tried the move but it was a bit too much,” Antonelli said.
“When I saw him coming back in front, I tried to let it go but it was not enough.
“I went for it because it's so difficult to overtake. The more laps you do in dirty air, the more it hurts your tyre and your pace. So I went for it and it was a bit too much.”
The stewards ruled in this case that Antonelli simply understeered into Leclerc while trying to pass and “was wholly and predominantly to blame for the collision”.
He received two penalty points, taking his current tally to four.
