July 29th 2023.
Sir Lewis Hamilton didn't seem to care much about the collision with Sergio Perez that got him penalised during Saturday's Sprint Race in Belgium. After being delayed by over an hour due to rain, the Sprint at Spa-Francorchamps finally got underway and was chaotic from the start, with half of the grid instantly pitting for intermediate tyres.
After losing the lead to Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen came back to win from pole ahead of the McLaren rookie, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly a shock third. Hamilton crossed the finish line fourth but was classified seventh after being handed a five-second time penalty for hitting Perez as he attempted to overtake the Red Bull.
The incident occurred after Perez had run wide, allowing Hamilton to pull alongside. However, at the next corner the Brit understeered ever so slightly and with the Mexican unwilling to yield the racing line there was a small amount of contact. This put a hole in Perez's sidepod which damaged his RB19 so badly he dropped down the grid dramatically before retiring with a few laps to go.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner further explained: “Unfortunately the contact, left front to sidepod has put a big hole in the sidepod and then you lose so much downforce. You could see he lost so much performance and we had no choice but to retire the car. That was very unfortunate.”
Though many believed the collision just to be a racing incident, especially in light of the wet conditions, the stewards handed Hamilton the penalty, something Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle deemed ‘harsh’. But when asked about the penalty post-sprint, the Mercedes man seemed completely unfazed. He said: “He [Perez] was pretty slow and went wide and slow through 14. I got a great exit, I was more than half a car alongside him and we just ended up coming together. It was a bit of a racing incident really, naturally it wasn’t intentional but they [the stewards] saw it differently. It was very tricky conditions out there, we were all trying our best. It doesn’t make a huge difference, fourth or seventh in the Sprint you don’t get a lot of points.”
The penalty only cost Hamilton three points, while his main rivals in the championship - Perez and Fernando Alonso - both failed to finish. The Red Bull star was not pleased at all however. He bluntly said: “Lewis just crashed into me and took the whole right-hand side of my car off so we basically lost all of the load. Unfortunately that meant no points today.”
Perez and Hamilton will start second and third for Sunday's main race behind Charles Leclerc who inherited pole after a Verstappen picked up a penalty. Despite the penalty, it seems Lewis is taking it in his stride, saying: “It doesn't make a huge difference, fourth or seventh in the Sprint you don't get a lot of points.”
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