Why Hamilton was penalised for Belgian GP clash + why Leclerc wasn't

The Belgian Grand Prix Formula 1 stewards have explained why Lewis Hamilton was penalised for his incident with George Russell - and why team-mate Charles Leclerc avoided sanction for clashing with Oscar Piastri.

Hamilton had to serve a five-second penalty during a pitstop under a virtual safety car after opening-lap contact with Russell through Les Combes - which put Russell out of the race.

But speaking after his retirement from the event, Russell said that while Hamilton carried more of the blame for the collision, it was more of a "racing incident" and he didn't feel Hamilton should have been penalised.

The stewards' panel - which this weekend includes former 1990s grand prix driver Pedro Lamy as the driver steward - agreed that there was significant mitigation to Hamilton's role in the collision, but did not feel he was absolved of blame, arguing that he was still "wholly at fault for the collision".

"During the corner, Car 44 [Hamilton] experienced understeer and, despite attempting to avoid Car 63 [Russell] by applying corrective steering, made contact with the right-hand side of Car 63 with its left-front wheel," the verdict read. 

"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.

"The stewards recognise several mitigating circumstances. Car 44 acknowledged the presence of Car 63, attempted to leave appropriate racing room and made a genuine attempt to avoid contact. The collision resulted from a loss of front-end grip rather than from an aggressive or deliberate manoeuvre. In addition, the incident occurred on the opening lap, where reduced grip and compressed racing conditions are recognised."

Those "mitigating circumstances" turned, as per the stewards, what would've been a 10-second penalty into a five-second penalty - and Hamilton has not been assessed penalty points.

But the decision to penalise him still appeared in contrast with no action against Leclerc - for what was admittedly an incident of a totally different nature, though in the same part of the track.

Piastri was on the outside of Leclerc entering Les Combes when the Ferrari appeared to shift towards the McLaren entering the braking phase, leading to contact and damage to Piastri's car.

That incident then prompted Mercedes to warn Antonelli about "Leclerc squeezing cars outside of Turn 5" as the Italian prepared his eventual race-winning move.But the stewards felt Leclerc hadn't done anything untoward, and that Piastri had "no realistic possibility" of completing a move from his position at the time.

"On the approach to Turn 5, Car 81 [Piastri] moved to overtake Car 16 [Leclerc] on the outside," they wrote.

"Although Car 81 had achieved some overlap with Car 16, its front axle was not ahead of the front axle of Car 16. From the stewards' perspective, there was no realistic possibility of Car 81 completing the overtake from that position.

"The stewards also determined that Car 16 did not deliberately force Car 81 off the edge of the track. Instead, Car 16 followed the normal racing line before the entry to Turn 5 by moving slightly to the left to open up the corner. As a result of both cars' positions, side-to-side contact occurred between them."

Leclerc finished the grand prix in second, 1.9s behind Antonelli and 17s ahead of Piastri.

Hamilton took the chequered flag in fourth - but remains under additional investigation, which is being carried out post-race, into a potential unsafe release during his sole pitstop.