Lewis Hamilton endured an eventful weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the seven-time World Champion having left Spa-Francorchamps with two penalty points added to his super licence.
The Mercedes driver showed good pace at the historic venue and was particularly impressive in the wet, in last Saturday’s sprint race.
Due to a heavy downpour, everybody started the sprint on the Extreme Wet tyres, before almost immediately pitting for the Intermediates.
When he got his Intermediates up to temperature, Hamilton was very quick and soon caught Sergio Perez.
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Perez went wide at Turn 14 which opened the door to the 38-year-old at Turn 15, who pulled alongside the Mexican.
As they approached the corner, Hamilton was fully alongside, before a bout of understeer caused the British driver to veer wide.
With Perez having been on his outside, Hamilton veered into the side of Perez, piercing a hole in the Mexican’s sidepod as a result.
The damage to the Red Bull driver’s car was substantial, to the extent where he was later forced to retire from the sprint.
Hamilton went on to finish fourth, only for a five-second time penalty to demote him to seventh.
Hamilton was also slapped with two penalty points for being deemed as at fault for the collision with Checo, which he insists was nothing more than “racing incident”.
He explained after the sprint how the move came about and how the collision “wasn’t intentional”, despite the majority of the stewards sharing a different view.
“He was pretty slow and went wide through Turn 14,” Hamilton explained.
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“I got a great exit, was more than half a car alongside him and we just ended up coming together. It was a bit of a racing incident really. It wasn’t intentional but the stewards saw it differently. It was tricky conditions out there.”
Interestingly, one steward is believed to have defended Hamilton and agreed that it was just a racing incident; however, they were outnumbered.
The two penalty points are the first to have been awarded to Hamilton in a very long time, with the Briton having had no points on his licence ahead of the Belgian GP.