Lewis Hamilton believes the five-second penalty handed to him was harsh at the sprint race of the 2023 Belgian GP weekend. Referring to Ayrton Senna’s iconic quote, the Briton felt the clash with Sergio Perez was merely a racing incident.
Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the sprint, Lewis Hamilton said:
“Not really much to say, racing incident I think, tried to go up the inside, yep, not much to say. Surprised it was an in-race decision, before speaking to you, yesterday we had to wait?”
He added:
“Yeah. I mean my only thought is it’s tricky conditions out there, we’re all trying our best, and of course it wasn’t intentional. I think I went for a gap, he was slow going through 14, I went up the inside, I was more than half a car length on the inside, and if you no longer go for a gap you’re no longer a racing driver as Ayrton said, so that’s what I did. When I watched it back it felt like a racing incident to me, so yep.”
Using Ayrton Senna’s famous quote about ‘going for a gap when it exists’, Lewis Hamilton defended his move on Perez, stating it was not intentional. The Briton felt the move was not intentional but a result of the damp tarmac and poor visibility, where he ended up making contact with the Mexican.
The Mexican has accused him of damaging his car, as the contact created a hole in his sidepod, resulting in his retirement. As a result of the incident, the seven-time world champion was penalized with a five-second penalty in the race, demoting him from fourth place to seventh place in the classification.
Lewis Hamilton felt not much could be done to overturn the steward's decision.
The FIA investigation of the incident led to the understanding that Perez had left enough room for the Briton, but the former drove across a kerb and understeered into the latter. The stewards deemed the Mercedes champion to be at fault, which he feels is a racing incident.
Asked if there could be anything done to appeal the decision, the Briton said:
“Not really much to say, racing incident I think, tried to go up the inside, yep, not much to say. Surprised it was an in-race decision, before speaking to you, yesterday we had to wait."
On whether the decision frustrated him, he said:
“In a race like today I honestly don’t really care too much, you don’t get too many points, of course it would have been nice to have finished fourth but I don’t really care to finish fourth I want to win. Fourth, seventh, doesn’t really make a difference.”
Unbothered with the result, Lewis Hamilton felt the end result didn’t matter as he desired to win races. Therefore, even fourth place, where he finished, did not matter much to him.
There have been contrasting opinions regarding the stewards’ decision, which has also resulted in the Briton being slapped with two penalty points.
| Besides a 5-second time penalty during the race, Lewis Hamilton also got 2 penalty points added to his license
