Lewis Hamilton blames 'unlucky' penalty for costing him Belgian Grand Prix win chance for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton in the media pen at the Belgian GP — Photo: © IMAGO

Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton blames 'unlucky' penalty for costing him Belgian Grand Prix win chance for Ferrari

It was one setback after another for Hamilton at the Belgian GP

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Sunday 19 July 2026 21:55

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Ferrari F1 star Lewis Hamilton has claimed he would have been in with a chance of winning this year's Belgian Grand Prix if he hadn't been hit with a five-second penalty.

Hamilton was punished by the FIA stewards for causing a collision with George Russell on the opening lap of the Belgian GP which instantly ended the Mercedes star's race.

The seven-time champion described this decision as 'unlucky' after the event, although he also pointed to a mistake he made earlier on in the weekend when explaining how the chance to secure another victory slipped away.

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The 41-year-old gifted the Ferrari mechanics with the monumental job of completely rebuilding his SF-26 with just over two hours to go in Spa after crashing out of FP3 on Saturday in the final minute of the session.

Following the incident, Ferrari had to change the suspension, floor, rear wing and the gearbox on Hamilton's car, but in the race against time, the Brit has revealed something was missed on the suspension.

Hamilton has since stated as a result of this error that he was unable to qualify as high up as he would have liked having taken a damaged car into qualifying, where the suspension was completely off.

He started Sunday's race from fifth, but was only able to make up one place to cross the line fourth, and he believes the snowball effect from his crash on Saturday is to blame as much as the time penalty.

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

Hamilton: I could've won in Spa

Speaking after the race to Sky Sports F1, Hamilton said: "I counted myself unlucky," regarding the stewards decision to penalise him for the opening lap incident with Russell.

"I think about my mistake that I made yesterday. So I take full responsibility really for the fourth place I ended up getting because I damaged the car.

"Then when they rebuild the car, they missed something on the suspension, so the balance was completely different.

"So it meant I was probably a good couple tenths, maybe three tenths slower than I should have been in qualifying, and then I ended up further back, got an incident, five-second penalty.

"So just like a domino effect from I think a decision or a mistake from myself. So, but the team have been doing a great job with strategy and stops.

"We are continuing to improve the car. I think our pace today, without the damage, I think we could have been challenging for the win."