Lewis Hamilton will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from fifth on the grid after he was given a three-place penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in qualifying.
The Ferrari driver set the second fastest time of qualifying, just 0.012 seconds off Norris’ pole position effort, but was immediately put under investigation for the incident with Piastri at Turn 1.
Hamilton was the first driver on the road in the final runs of qualifying, and after failing to improve on his time, was ahead of Piastri on track as the McLaren driver started his flying lap.
Video footage showed Piastri locking up and running wide of the racing line as Hamilton blocked his path through the corner.
Teams usually warn their drivers of rivals behind them in qualifying, but Hamilton said the call from his race engineer came too late.
“I was told literally when he was at the apex behind me, so I had no idea he was coming,” Hamilton said.
“I thought everyone came out behind me. I was the first out, so I thought everyone had finished their lap and I think Charles [Leclerc] was the car that was behind me when I left the pit lane as far as I was aware.
“So, yeah, crazy because they’d been clean and obviously it wasn’t intentional.”
Despite the confusion at Ferrari, the stewards were in no doubt that Hamilton had impeded Piastri.
“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), the driver of Car 81 (Oscar Piastri), team representatives and reviewed video, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” a statement said.
“At the approach to Turn 1, Car 44 was travelling at a significantly reduced speed on the racing line while Car 81 was approaching on a push lap. The driver of Car 44 explained that he had just completed a fast lap and did not receive the team’s radio message regarding the approaching Car 81 until the latter was already in close proximity.
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“He further stated that, due to the positioning of his car on the track, Car 81 was not visible in his mirrors. Car 81, which was on a push lap, was forced to take avoiding action by running wide and being obliged to abort the lap.
“Having examined the available evidence, the stewards determined that Car 44 unnecessarily impeded Car 81 during qualifying.
“In accordance with the FIA F1 Regulations and the established penalty guidelines for this type of infringement in Qualifying, the Stewards impose a three-place grid penalty on the driver of Car 44.”
In a news conference after qualifying, Hamilton questioned Ferrari sent him out first on the road on his final run in Q3 and believes he had the performance to secure pole position.
“I mean, I don’t know why we went first and that was a bit of a shock to me,” Hamilton said. “I definitely wouldn’t have chosen to go first, but it is what it is.
“I had a clean out-lap and when I started my lap already in Turn 1, I had a snap and I was already a tenth and a half down and it just cascaded from there.
“So the last lap was the worst lap of all and all the other laps were really good. So we clearly had the car to be on pole today and I just didn’t deliver. So that’s, yeah, tough to swallow.”
