12 drivers avoid F1 penalty for FIA rule breach that saw Lewis Hamilton demoted at Singapore GP

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen looking sad next to the FIA flag — Photo: © IMAGO

Singapore Grand Prix

12 drivers avoid F1 penalty for FIA rule breach that saw Lewis Hamilton demoted at Singapore GP

Lewis Hamilton was given a late demotion

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 6 October 2025 19:56

Lewis Hamilton was awarded a shock FIA penalty after the Singapore Grand Prix, with 12 F1 drivers avoiding a similar breach and demotion.

The Singapore GP was a strange weekend for Hamilton, where the champion looked more comfortable in his Ferrari on Saturday, where he out-qualified team-mate Charles Leclerc and looked set to beat him in the race.

However, Leclerc got a much better launch off the line than his team-mate, overtaking him on lap one.

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To make matters worse for the 40-year-old, he suffered a brake issue and dropped down to seventh during the closing stages of the Singapore GP, where Fernando Alonso reduced the gap from 30 seconds to four tenths of a second behind him.

During this period, Hamilton exceeded track limits on three occasions at Turns 2, 5 and 16, for which he was shown the black and white flag, which signals another track limit violation will result in a penalty.

Unable to prevent his car from leaving the confines of the track, Hamilton was responsible for a fourth offence at Turn 17 and was awarded a five-second time penalty after the race for the breach.

Which drivers had a lap time deleted at the Singapore GP?

Following his five-second time penalty, Hamilton was demoted after the Singapore GP and fell down to eighth, with Alonso being promoted to seventh.

Alongside Hamilton, 12 different drivers were all responsible for track limit violations during the grand prix and had their lap times deleted.

These drivers were: Kimi Antonelli, Ollie Bearman, Max Verstappen, Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc.

Bearman breached track limits on three occasions, at Turns 2 and 19, but after presumably being shown the black and white flag, the Haas star did not exceed the limits again and avoided a penalty.

Antonelli, Verstappen, Albon, Colapinto, Hulkenberg and Ocon, all exceeded track limits on the two occasions, while the remaining drivers only had one lap time deleted.

Despite his demotion after exceeding track limits, Hamilton still left Singapore with the fastest lap of the race and set a time of 1 minute 33.808 seconds on lap 48.

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