Lewis Hamilton has picked up four penalties in his last three race weekends, hampering his efforts and leaving the seven-time world champion 50 points adrift of championship leader Kimi Antonelli heading into the summer break.
The run began at Silverstone, where he was penalised for jumping the start during his attempt to win the British Grand Prix again. At Spa-Francorchamps, he received a five-second penalty for a first-lap incident that saw him tag George Russell and send his former team-mate into the gravel.
No pattern in the penalties
Two more penalties followed over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend to end the first half of the season. Hamilton was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying, then penalised again during the race when pit-lane sensors picked him up speeding by just 0.1kph.
Former F1 racer Christian Danner told Express Sport, via OLBG, that he is not concerned about the run of punishments, pointing out there is no pattern among the offences themselves.
"He made quite a few errors last year, which were due to the fact that he did not really understand the systems properly and everything, and was a bit behind what was going on. That is not the case this year. The fact that he overshot the braking into the pit lane, which I am told was the problem, that is just a normal mistake when you are pushing it over the limit. It is not good, but it can happen. But it does not give us a reason to say, 'He is making another mistake, another mistake'. Causing a collision, the one with George in Spa, I would say it was a collision and he caused it. But a few years ago, it might have been a racing accident because it was still after the start, and a lot of cars in the same corner at the same time. Yes, it was okay, he got the penalty, and all these penalties are very soft penalties. A five-second penalty at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix was bad because he lost a position, but I wouldn't say that it indicates something at all, no."
Championship position
Hamilton is second in the drivers' championship heading into the summer shutdown, having secured his first Grand Prix podiums and victory as a Ferrari driver earlier in the season.
To close the gap when racing resumes, the Brit admitted he needs to "try to make sure I don't give them any reason to penalise me".
