Hamilton hit with grid penalty for Dutch Grand Prix after impeding Perez in qualifying

Lewis Hamilton has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Dutch Grand Prix after the stewards deemed that he had unnecessarily impeded the Red Bull of Sergio Perez during Q1 of Saturday’s qualifying session.

Perez had to lift when he encountered the slow-moving Mercedes of Hamilton in the early stages of the session, prompting an angry response from the Mexican over the radio. He later suggested that the incident had compromised his session due to having to use an extra set of tyres afterwards.

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Both drivers and their respective team representatives were summoned to see the stewards about the matter at 1700 local time, where it was decided that Hamilton had breached Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

As such, a grid drop will be applied to the next race that Hamilton competes in, meaning that his original starting position of P12 for the Dutch Grand Prix will now become P15.

“The driver of Car 44, being on an in lap, was informed by the team that Car 11 was approaching on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8," a statement from the stewards reads. “He then drove off line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention to give way for Car 11.”

“However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and drove back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, thereby clearly impeding Car 11.

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“The Stewards determine that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”

This was not the only change to the classification after qualifying, with Alex Albon disqualified from the session after the floor of his Williams was found to "lie outside the regulatory volume".

The Thai driver had qualified in P8, meaning that his disqualification – and Hamilton's three-place drop – will see several drivers move up in the order.