Lewis Hamilton was handed a reprimand for impeding Liam Lawson during practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Fernando Alonso received a 25-place grid penalty for exceeding his engine component allocation.
Hamilton reprimanded for impeding Lawson
Hamilton was deemed guilty of "severe" and unnecessary impeding after Lawson had to take evasive action during Thursday's second practice session in Baku. The Racing Bulls driver reacted furiously over team radio, saying: "Oh my god, that is so dangerous".
This is the second time this season the seven-time world champion has been reprimanded for such an infringement, with the normal penalty for a free practice session incident being a warning.
Hamilton blames 2026 engine regulations
Hamilton blamed F1's 2026 engine regulations for the near-miss, explaining that during an out-lap, drivers have no battery deployment and rely solely on the internal combustion engine, resulting in around 500bhp less power.
"Naturally, it's never an intention from any driver to get in the way," Hamilton said. "Basically with the way the rules are set, when you do an out-lap and when you come round the last corner to start your lap you have no K, so you have no battery deployment. You just have the ICE, so it's something like 500bhp less."
He added: "There's no guidelines also on how big a gap you have to understand the closing speed that you are going to have with a guy that's on a lap. I was four seconds ahead, I thought there was enough. I was like 'this looks big enough', got on the power and once I got into [Turn] 18 the speed deficit was huge and there was nowhere I could go at that point. So unfortunate, but it gives us good guidelines as to what to potentially change tomorrow."
Hamilton claimed the incident is a consequence of the new engine rules introduced for the 2026 season, stating: "That's not the drivers' fault. That's what the FIA did with the decisions at the beginning of the year and we're trying to manage the best we can as drivers on track in finding the right gaps and not getting in the way of people."
Alonso and Stroll hit with grid penalties
Fernando Alonso will start from the back of the grid after taking a fifth internal combustion engine, a fifth turbocharger and a ninth power unit ancillary component in Baku, accumulating a total of 25 grid positions in penalties.
His Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll has also been penalised, taking a sixth turbocharger, seventh energy store, sixth control electronics unit and an eighth power unit ancillary component, adding up to a total of 20 places on the grid.
According to the regulations, the first time the allocation of any power unit element is exceeded, a 10-place grid penalty is applied, with subsequent exceedances resulting in a five-place grid drop. Drivers accumulating engine penalties worth more than 15 positions automatically start from the back of the grid.
