Lewis Hamilton “shocked” by penalty, reveals Dutch GP crash cause

Lewis Hamilton says he was “shocked” to receive what he feels was a “pretty hardcore” penalty for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton endured a miserable Dutch Grand Prix as he crashed out of seventh place during last Sunday’s race at Zandvoort.

Hamilton also picked up a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s race at Monza, which marks his first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver, having failed to slow sufficiently for double waved yellow flags on his way to the grid.

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Asked if he found the post-race penalty to be frustrating, Hamilton replied: “Of course. I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, and I was really shocked to be honest.”

The stewards revealed Hamilton avoided an even bigger penalty because he did lift but ultimately did not enter the pit lane at “greatly reduced speed”.

It means Hamilton, who was also given two penalty points on his superlicence, will start no higher than sixth for his Ferrari’s home race at Monza.

“It’s obviously not black and white,” Hamilton continued. “The fact is, if you look at the report, I did lift but to their liking not enough and so that’s why they are saying it’s not more.

“To get the penalty and get penalty points is pretty hardcore but I'll learn from it and there’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forwards.

“It’s going to be challenging this weekend. Qualifying is already so close between us all so just getting to Q3 is tough, getting in the top five is very, very tough.

“Then on top of that to be set back five places is not great when you are going into your first Monza GP with Ferrari. But it gives me more to fight for and makes me motivated to make up those places regardless.”

Combination of factors led to Hamilton’s crash

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur told media including Crash.net after Sunday’s race that the team would investigate “if something happened on the car” that led to Hamilton’s crash.

Hamilton explained that a deep dive into the accident revealed “several things” contributed to the crash which overshadowed an otherwise encouraging weekend.

“Throughout the weekend the approach that we had I think was spot on,” Hamilton said. “I felt like it was one of strongest and smoothest weekends, up until Sunday, that we had.

“Sunday was obviously not the result that we want. I said that it’s unusual for me because I don’t really make a lot of mistakes in races like that.

“But the great thing is that the team remained really, really positive. They are incredibly supportive every single weekend. Even though personally you don’t feel great about it, they lift your spirits.

“The following day they were deep-diving to try and really understand what led to it, because it wasn’t a case of a lack of concentration. There were several things that contributed to it.

“For example, I had a downgraded upshift which locked the rear wheels and spat the rear-end out. Also it was spitting so I was like 10mm or 10cm wider than on the previous lap.

“There were a combination of things, either way it’s not great, I’ll learn from it and move forwards. But if I apply the same approach this weekend and to the following races, I really feel positive about the direction we go.”