Lewis Hamilton F1 penalty questioned as FIA stewards slammed

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Lewis Hamilton F1 penalty questioned as FIA stewards slammed

David Croft has slammed Lewis Hamilton's penalty

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 23 July 2026 08:12

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Sky Sports F1 pundit David Croft has slammed the FIA race stewards following the decision to give Lewis Hamilton a penalty for causing a collision.

After tussling with George Russell on lap one of last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton was handed a five-second penalty which all but ended his chances of a victory at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

For Russell, it left him out of the race, but even he admitted the crash was just a 'racing incident', hinting he didn't think Hamilton should have been penalised for the move.

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Hamilton came together with Russell on the opening lap at Turn 5, with the pair battling for fourth position following a 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.

But arguably the most controversial part of Hamilton's penalty was the fact team-mate Charles Leclerc was not given a penalty for a later incident involving McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

The two cars touched when battling for third place, causing debris to fly off Piastri's McLaren at almost the exact same place on track that Hamilton and Russell made contact just a few laps before.

However, on this occasion, neither driver was impacted too much by the contact, with both still able to carry on the race.

Leclerc was investigated over the incident but managed to escape any punishment from the FIA race stewards. Instead, he was handed a no further action verdict, with it deemed to have been a racing incident.

F1 drivers are meeting with the FIA at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, and it's thought those two incidents will form part of the discussions around the Drivers' Standards Guidelines.

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Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast ahead of the 11th round of the championship in Hungary, commentator Croft was less than happy with Hamilton's penalty, especially considering Leclerc got away with the similar incident.

Discussing the stewards' decision to give Hamilton a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Russell, Croft went through the FIA verdict before saying: "I don't understand the logic and the thinking here.

"During the corner they say, Lewis had understeer and attempted to correct his steering but still made contact with George. George remained within the available racing room, collision was caused by Lewis being unable to maintain what they call sufficient separation. But the stewards say they recognise several mitigating circumstances in this, a lot of which was not Lewis Hamilton’s fault.

"But then they say that Lewis was wholly at fault for the collision. Well, if there are several mitigating circumstances, how can somebody be wholly at fault for a collision? Because surely those mitigating circumstances have to be applied. And you say, well, he's only partially at fault or, there was nothing he could do about it and he did try to correct it. And I know it could have been a 10-second penalty, not a five, but come on here.

"If George Russell, who's out of the race, is saying that's a racing incident, why are the stewards giving that as a penalty and if they're going to be that draconian, why is Charles Leclerc not penalised for what I saw as crowding on Oscar Piastri?"

Karun Chandhok then weighed in saying: "I agree with you on the Leclerc thing because to me, I don't understand how he got nothing for that."

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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