FIA announce Lewis Hamilton penalty at Belgian Grand Prix

Ferrari F1 star Lewis Hamilton has been slammed with a five-second time penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was involved in an incident with Mercedes' George Russell at the start of the race, which resulted in championship challenger Russell being spun around and ending up in the gravel.

Hamilton came together with Russell on the exit of turn three, with the pair battling for fourth position following a huge slipstream for Hamilton heading down the straight after Eau Rouge.

Hamilton's left front wheel went into Russell's Mercedes, spinning him around and out of the race. "Car crossed over in front of me," Hamilton explained on team radio. "I was right behind another car so I had no front end."

But that protest was to no end, with the FIA race stewards confirming that Hamilton would be given a five-second time penalty for the incident.

Hamilton was running in fourth at the time that the penalty was handed out.

F1 HEADLINES: Three teams handed FIA penalties, Russell has zero disqualification regrets

Hamilton handed penalty

Russell said in his post-race interview that his collision with Hamilton was just a 'racing incident', but race stewards did not agree with the Mercedes star.

They felt like Hamilton could have left more room for his former team-mate and therefore opted to hand him a penalty.

The incident for Russell left him completely out of the race in what was a huge blow to his championship chances, and he was rather emotional in his post-race interview, with championship rival Kimi Antonelli leading the race at the time.

Hamilton managed to serve his penalty during a virtual safety car period, negating the full impact of the five seconds in a smart strategy ploy from Ferrari.

Leclerc escapes penalty

At the start of the race, Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc was also under investigation for an incident involving Oscar Piastri.

The two cars touched when battling for third place, in the same place that Hamilton and Russell made contact just a few laps before, and some debris appeared to fly off the McLaren of Piastri.

Neither driver, however, were affected too much by the incident, still being able to carry on in the race, and Leclerc escaped any punishment from FIA race stewards.

Leclerc was handed a no further action verdict, with it being deemed to be a racing incident.

READ MORE: George Russell 'owed nothing' after Belgian Grand Prix disqualification

READ MORE: FIA announce Lewis Hamilton penalty verdict at Belgian Grand Prix

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