Lewis Hamilton hit with penalty for clash with Red Bull's Sergio Perez in F1 Belgian Grand Prix sprint race
The Mercedes driver went wheel-to-wheel with Perez, and 🥃their dramatically collided wh🐻ile side-on, on Saturday at Spa.
Perez was initially able to hold off Hamilto♓n, although he later lost his position.
Hamilton finished th⛄e sprint race fourth but the penalty meant he was relegated to P7.
"THEY TOUCH!"
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1)
It's all happening in the Sprint!
ꦐ“That is harsh! They were side by side," Sky's Martin Brundle reacted t꧋o the penalty.
"Lewis can’𒐪t just evaporate! He’s 🔴got to try and go through the corner! It wasn’t like he arrived late then slammed into the side of him.”
Hamilton did not enjoy an ideal Saturday at Spa, first becoming frustrating by an incident during the sprint s♚hootout when he and teammate George Russell got in each other's way. That limited him to P7 on the starting grid for the sprint race.
But Hamilton battled into fourth, having controversially passed Perez, only for𒁏 some of his hard work to be undone by the time penalty.
Perez, meanwhile, was one of ♕two drivers who did not finis👍h.
After Hamilton passed him, his car suffered sidepod damage and he was overtaken by both Ferrari drivers then ended up in the gravel as Lando Norris zipped by. He rejoined in🍨 16th but didn't 🌊finish.
J✱ames was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
