Hamilton handed five-place grid penalty for Italian Grand Prix

Add as a preferred source on Google

Lewis Hamilton has been handed a five-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion suffered his first retirement as a Ferrari driver when he lost control of his car at turn three during the Dutch Grand Prix.

Team-mate Charles Leclerc also failed to finish the race after a separate incident with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

Hamilton was given the penalty after failing to slow down for yellow flags on his way to the grid, almost 40 minutes before the formation lap took place.

The stewards released a statement that said: “Article 44.1 requires all drivers covering more than one reconnaissance lap to drive down the pit entry road at 'greatly reduced speed'.

“The data showed that the driver [Hamilton] had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph 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 pit lane.

“We did not consider that a 20kph 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.”

Hamilton is currently sixth in the drivers’ standings, 200 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Piastri became the first Australian driver to win at the Zandvoort track since Alan Jones in 1979, and equalled Max Verstappen’s second-best record for most consecutive races finished in F1 history (43).