FIA take action on out of sorts Lewis Hamilton at Japanese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton

FIA take action on out of sorts Lewis Hamilton at Japanese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton was given an FIA punishment

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 28 March 2026 09:15

Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton was given a bizarre punishment by FIA race stewards during Japanese Grand Prix qualifying.

Hamilton has struggled all-weekend long at the Suzuka International Circuit compared to his team-mate Charles Leclerc, and qualifying was no different for the Brit.

He could not string together consecutive fast sectors and ended up down in sixth, behind both McLarens and behind Leclerc, who qualified fourth but barring a mistake on his final flying lap, could have been challenging for pole.

Article continues under video

Hamilton finished almost seven tenths behind 19-year-old pole sitter Kimi Antonelli, who outshone all of his rivals once more, including team-mate George Russell.

But during Q3, Hamilton was handed more misery, when a black-and-white flag was waved his way by race stewards for driving too slowly at the pit exit. Hamilton was given that as a warning for a driving standards violation, but no sporting punishment came from it and the qualifying result remains the same.

Speaking after his session, Hamilton said: "I was feeling pretty decent, it’s just we’re not very quick, I mean compared to the Mercedes and a little bit the McLaren.

"My first lap I was up and then I lost two and a half tenths just on the straights, just from, I had a snap and then it changed the deployment and then that was it.

"And at that point I was up, so if we didn’t have that problem, I probably would have had fourth. But other than that, it’s just the way this deployment situation is.

"I don’t know whether we can turn it into a podium, but our race pace has been pretty decent. It looks like McLaren have taken a step forward, naturally (because) they’ve got the Mercedes engine which is a long way ahead of us at the moment.

"We’ve got a huge amount of work to do. To be seven, eight tenths off, even if you bring an upgrade of two, three, four tenths, it’s still a long way off. So, to close that gap is going to take a mighty push from everybody."

F1 RESULTS: Japanese GP times & positions

What is a black-and-white flag?

A black-and-white flag in F1 is waved at a driver as a warning for breaching drivers' standards guidelines which are set out at the start of every race weekend.

Drivers can also receive one of these warning flags for unsportsmanlike behaviour towards another driver.

It is essentially like a yellow card in football, if you do it again then you will be hit with a harsher punishment. It's the final step before a time penalty or grid drop is issued to a driver.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari FIA Japanese Grand Prix