Lewis Hamilton has disagreed with the FIA’s decision to slap him with a five-second time penalty for colliding with Sergio Perez.
The seven-time World Champion received the penalty during Saturday’s sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix, after he clipped the side of Perez at high-speed.
Hamilton and Perez were jostling for position at the damp Spa-Francorchamps, when contact was made at Turn 14.
The collision damaged Perez’s car to the extent where he was forced to retire a few laps after the incident occurred, as he started to tumble down the order.
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Hamilton went on to finish in fourth, but his time penalty demoted him to seventh.
As it was just the sprint race, Mercedes opted not to appeal the decision, due to how few points are awarded in the format.
Despite this, Hamilton is convinced that the incident shouldn’t have resulted in a penalty, with the 38-year-old having warned the FIA against making drivers not want to race side-by-side.
“It was a racing incident, I think – I tried to go up the inside,” Hamilton said, as reported by the Mirror.
“It’s tricky conditions out there, we are all trying our best. Of course, it wasn’t intentional. I went for a gap, he was going slow through [Turn] 14, I went up the inside, more than half a car length up the inside.
“If you are not going for a gap, you are no longer racing, as Ayrton [Senna] once said. That’s what I did. When I watched it back, it felt like a racing incident to me. We don’t want to be deterred from racing.”
Unsurprisingly, Perez’s view on the collision with Hamilton was drastically different.
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The Red Bull driver insisted that Hamilton “just crashed” into him, which caused significant damage to the right-hand side of his car.
Perez was disappointed with what happened and the fact he was forced to retire as a result.
“Basically, Lewis just crashed into me and took the whole right-hand side of my car off. So, we lost all the load. Unfortunately, that meant no points for today,” said a frustrated Perez.