Hamilton on Ricciardo incident: 'That's not a penalty'

Lewis Hamilton criticised the decision to punish Daniel Ricciardo for a pair of late-race overtakes on Lando Norris and Kimi Raikkonen respectively at the French Grand Prix which ultimately saw the Renault driver booted out of the top 10 to 11th place.

Ricciardo was given two five-second penalties, dropping him from seventh place to outside the points.

Ricciardo left the track while overtaking Norris at the chicane, also pushing the McLaren man wide in the process, before again crossing the white line while getting by Raikkonen on the following straight.

The Australian made his feelings clear on social media, commenting on an F1 post of the incident: "Someone had to create entertainment."

Hamilton then came out in defence of Ricciardo, a move made all the more intriguing as the Mercedes man seemed resolute in his opinion that Sebastian Vettel had deserved a five-second penalty for a not entirely dissimilar transgression in Canada a fortnight prior – Hamilton benefitting with a race win as a result of the Ferrari's fate.

"This is not a penalty," Hamilton posted to Instagram. "You can't see the car alongside and he just gave him more than enough space but was ahead going in."

Another view on the Ricciardo penalty from @LewisHamilton...#F1 #FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/gG63YWbpJ9

— GPFans Global (@GPFansGlobal) June 23, 2019

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