Lewis Hamilton has slammed his 10-second time penalty on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix as “fairly bizarre”.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was given a heavy penalty for leaving the observe and gaining the higher hand throughout a duel with former title rival Max Verstappen throughout Sunday’s race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
As the 2 battled by way of Flip 4, Hamilton locked up and raced throughout the grass earlier than resurfacing in entrance of Verstappen, who was overtaken by Haas driver Oliver Bearman.
Hamilton maintained third place on the observe, however acquired a ten second penalty, which was utilized throughout his pit cease.
The penalty ended the 40-year-old Briton’s hopes of changing into the primary Ferrari driver to complete on the rostrum, ending in eighth place.
Hamilton was left puzzled as to why he was penalized for going off observe, though different drivers, together with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc and Verstappen, didn’t do the identical at Flip 1 at the beginning.
“I imply, it was just about like everybody else round me, so… it did not make sense,” Hamilton advised reporters after the race in Mexico Metropolis.
“I had an ideal begin. You braked into Flip 1, I bought into second and navigated (Turns) 1, 2 and three. I did not go off the observe.”
“Different gamers reduce and stayed in place and did not get penalized. It was fairly loopy.”
Hamilton and Verstappen have resumed their well-known rivalry in F1
Hamilton feels horrible has been executed to him.
It seems Hamilton was underneath investigation for a number of accidents with Verstappen. This included a two-wheel collision in Flip 1 simply earlier than going off the observe, which resulted in a hefty penalty.
“It felt like I used to be racing,” Hamilton mentioned. “I used to be tremendous there. It was only a reduce. After that, I used to be the one one with a 10-second penalty. It was a little bit of a whim. I ended for 10 seconds after which began.”
“I attempted to go to the exit highway, but it surely was just like the dustiest place on earth, and I could not sluggish the automotive down, so I ended up stroking the grass, however that is the exit highway.”
Hamilton gave a somewhat abrupt post-race interview to Sky Sports activities F1.
“It was enjoyable at first, but it surely did not finish the way in which I wished it to. That is automotive racing,” he mentioned.
“It’s extremely soiled offline so we did our greatest to get the automotive again on observe safely and that is all I can hope for.”
“Sure, there are some positives. Not less than we bought some factors.”
