The 2020 Italian Grand Prix looked set to be another commanding win for Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver comfortably leading the first half of the race.
However, things went south after Hamilton was awarded a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for entering the pitlane while it was closed.
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Hamilton fell to the back of the pack once he served his penalty just after the race was restarted.
He recovered to seventh position, and with teammate Valtteri Bottas only finishing in P5 and Max Verstappen getting a DNF, the outcome didn’t cost Hamilton much ground in the Championship battle.
However, in addition to the time penalty, the stewards added another two penalty points onto Hamilton’s Super Licence, bringing the running one-year total up to eight.
He will be handed a one-race ban if he picks up another four points in the next six Grand Prix, as accumulating 12 penalty points within a 12-month period results in an automatic race ban.
Four of Hamilton’s existing penalty points were picked up due to incidents with Alex Albon in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and this year’s Austrian Grand Prix.
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