Lewis Hamilton was penalised during the Hungarian Grand Prix for speeding in the pit lane, a decision that left Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson perplexed. The incident occurred as Hamilton entered the pits for his second tyre change. Race stewards recorded his speed at 80.1kph, just over the 80kph limit, resulting in a five-second time penalty that dropped him from fourth to fifth place.
Lewis Hamilton Penalty
Davidson, analysing the footage on Sky Sports, expressed confusion over the call. “I've looked at this so many times and I can't work out why he gets a penalty,” he said. “For me, he slows down sufficiently well. We've got this marker board on the left-hand side that stipulates the 80kph speed limit. I don't see that [speeding]. Let's have a look at the exit. Obviously knew he was under time pressure to get out in that race with [Kimi] Antonelli. Again, for me, it sounds like he releases the pit lane button on the line itself. This guy knows what he's doing when it comes to white lines and when to press the button. Maybe there was just an error when he was a bit too close to the line on the actual speed of the car and they were just pinged by that. Who knows? Strange that it only happened that one time. I don't have enough data here and I can only go by the sound of when he is pressing that button. For me, it looked totally fine on the way in and on the way out.”
Oscar Piastri on ‘Unacceptable’ Incident
Oscar Piastri also made headlines after the race, hitting out at Carlos Sainz for a collision that ultimately ended his race. The McLaren driver was battling teammate Lando Norris for the lead when he approached lapped cars Sainz and Fernando Alonso. Sainz attempted to overtake Alonso but cut across Piastri’s path, causing a crash that resulted in a gearbox failure for Piastri, who did not finish. Stewards deemed Sainz responsible and handed him a five-second penalty.
“I couldn't believe what happened,” Piastri said. “Getting crashed into by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect that can go wrong in your race. And today it was. I don't really care if he didn't see me and the fact that he didn't and no one told him, or there was a lack of complete awareness, is unacceptable.”
