Lewis Hamilton was slapped with two penalty points at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, following an incident in Saturday’s sprint race.
Saturday’s sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps was chaotic, with all the drivers having started on the Extreme Wets due to a heavy downpour.
However, due to the Extreme Wet tyres being so slow, everyone pitted for the Intermediates in the opening two laps when the Safety Car finally released the field.
This caused chaos in the pit-lane, with some drivers having made up several places, whilst others lost a handful.
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Hamilton was one of the drivers to lose a few places, with Sergio Perez having crucially overtaken him.
The Mercedes driver’s pace was actually better than Perez’s though, something which saw the British driver catch the Mexican quickly.
He ultimately tried to go wheel-to-wheel with Checo in the final sector for P4, only for contact to be made.
Hamilton drifted wide and pierced a hole in Perez’s sidepod, something which caused the Red Bull driver to retire a few laps later.
Hamilton went on to finish fourth, only to be demoted to seventh following a five-second time penalty for causing the collision.
As well as that, the 103-time race winner was slapped with two penalty points, ruining his perfectly clean super licence.
The Stevenage-born driver hadn’t received any penalty points over the last 12 months; however, the two he was awarded on Saturday will stay with him for 365 days.
Mercedes opted not to appeal the decision due to so few points being available in the sprint.
After the sprint, the FIA explained why Hamilton was penalised.
“The Stewards reviewed video and in-car video evidence,” the FIA stated.
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“Hamilton was attempting to pass Perez on the inside at Turn 15. While Perez was giving little room on the inside for Hamilton, Hamilton drove onto the kerb and subsequently understeered into Perez in the wet conditions.
“The Stewards consider that Hamilton was predominantly at fault for causing a collision and order a five second penalty.”
Hamilton went on to have a lonely race on Sunday, where he once again finished fourth but this time without a penalty.