Lewis Hamilton has questioned why he was given a penalty in the Mexico City Grand Prix for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, given the lack of punishments for others at the start of the race.
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen both cut Turn 2 but Lando Norris retained the lead and Hamilton slotted into second place after a four-wide entry. Leclerc rejoined at the head of the field and let Norris by, while Verstappen also dropped behind Hamilton when back on track, with no penalties handed out.
Hamilton then received a 10-second time penalty for going off track at Turn 4 when fighting with Verstappen later on, with the stewards deeming he gained a lasting advantage by overtaking Verstappen with the move.
“I was pretty much the same as all the other people around me…” Hamilton said of that incident.
“I had a great start, and good braking into Turn 1, I was into P2. I navigated through Turn 2 and Turn 3, I didn’t go off-track, others cut it, got the position and didn’t get penalties. It was pretty nuts.”
There was light contact between Hamilton and Verstappen as the Red Bull driver initially tried to overtake at the start of the sequence that led to the penalty, but Hamilton had no complaints about the fight at that stage.
“That’s… It felt like racing. I was fine there. It was just the cutting, and I’m the only one to get a 10-second penalty.
“I pinched the right front, I went to go down the exit road, but it was the dustiest place on earth. I couldn’t slow the car down, so I ended up cutting the grass.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur also felt the punishment handed out to Hamilton was harsh, particularly given the impact it had on dropping him from third on the road to a finish of eighth place.
“If you consider the global picture, seeing that Max cut the corner before, he cut the chicane, on the grass, 100 meters. I think it’s not very well managed, honestly. Because you are in Mexico, on top of this, I don’t say that you have to adapt the penalty to the track, but you have to understand what you are doing.
“[Hamilton] took the 10 seconds, this dropped us to the back of the queue of the group and we can’t overtake. It’s after the pit stop that you have no chance to recover. This cost us, probably P4. Even with a five-second penalty, I think we were still P4. But with 10 seconds…”
