Three-place penalty for Hamilton at Zdvord

Lewis Hamilton has been handed a three-place penalty for pole position at the Zedward Grand Prix by the stewards, dropping him to 15th on the grid on Sunday from 12th in the race.

During the second session (Q2) of qualifying testing in the Dutch city, Hamilton was moving slowly into the right-hand turn 9, but stayed on the outside of it to avoid impeding Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Despite the fact that the Briton had gone off the ideal line, the Mexican was forced to lift his foot off the gas at the exit of the corner to avoid the Mercedes.

Hamilton told his mechanic that “I was clearly out of his way”, but the marshals had a different opinion. So, despite acknowledging that Hamilton was off the grid, they handed him a three-place grid penalty at the start of the race and the 39-year-old will therefore start from 15th.

In addition to Hamilton, the stewards also decided to exclude Alex Albon from the qualifying tests, so the Anglo-Thai will start from the last position. The reason for the disqualification is that the floor of the Williams did not meet the specifications of the technical control, since it exceeded the maximum permissible limit of 1600 millimeters.

Thus, the drivers behind Albon will all gain one place: Lance Stroll will be third, Pierre Gasly ninth and Carlos Sainz tenth.