Martin Brundle questions “harsh” Lewis Hamilton penalty: “What can he do?”
On Lap 6 🔯of the sprint, Hamilt🦩on understeered slightly into the side of Perez’s car when attempting to overtake him.
The contact gave Perez significant sidepod damage♔ which forced him out of the race after he plummeted down the order.
The penalty dropped Hamilton from fo𝓡urth into seventh for the final classification.&nꦫbsp;
Giving his thoughts on the incident, Brundle said: “I thought it w♎as a racing incident. I thought the penalty was harsh. I’ll stand by that.
“Lewis had claimed the corner. There was an error in the corner before by Perez. [Hamilton] was on the insꦫide. Yes, the car did understeer a little bit.
“What is racing? If that’s not racing, and therefore a racing incident, then I don’t know. It wasn’t Lewis launching an impossible move. He waꦗs on the inside of the corner.
“It did take Checo out of the race so we have to consider th💦at. And it was definitely the Mercedes sliding left rather than the Red Bull pinching him.
“Sﷺo I understand wꦓhat the stewards have done. But I would want to call that a racing incident because Lewis can’t disappear in that moment. He claimed the corner. What can he do?”
N🍃aomi Schiff seemed to side with Brundle, stating it wasn’t “deliberate” from Hamilton.
“I feel for Perez because he’s had a poor run of form, he’s ๊really trying to get it right, and each time it goes wrong it will build frustration,” he added.
“But we want to see th🔴ese drivers racing. The move was on. He was side-by-side. In tricky conditions the grip levels in the corners are not very high. Lewis was as much of🤪 a passenger in that situation. I don’t think it was deliberate.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbi🦋ased reporting.
