Something doesn’t add up in the FIA document announcing Lewis Hamilton penalty at Spa

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Lewis Hamilton was adjudged to be ‘wholly at fault’ for his collision with George Russell at the start of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton and Russell were side by side at the Les Combes chicane when the Ferrari tagged the Mercedes, sending him spinning into the gravel and ending his race.

Despite the five-second penalty, Hamilton improved on his starting position and crossed the line fourth – a result that, ironically, sees him overtake Russell in the championship.

Stewards admit ‘mitigating circumstances’ for Lewis Hamilton, then say he was 100% to blame

The official document from the stewards states that Russell had ‘established sufficient overlap to be entitled to racing room’. The collision was caused by Hamilton ‘being unable to maintain sufficient separation’.

The standard penalty for such an offence is 10 seconds, but the stewards reduced it to five because of ‘several mitigating circumstances’. Hamilton ‘made a genuine attempt to avoid contact’ but had suffered ‘a loss of front-end grip’ due to turbulent air from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

The stewards also recognised the ‘reduced grip and compressed racing conditions’ on the opening lap, as is customary.

And yet, Hamilton was found to be ‘wholly at fault’. The consensus is that Russell was largely blameless, but that doesn’t mean that his compatriot had to be punished.

In fact, the stewards made a compelling case for Hamilton not to be given a penalty. They acknowledged that it wasn’t ‘an aggressive or deliberate’ move.

Lap one penalties should be reserved for such manoeuvres. In this particular case, the officials should have ruled that this was a genuine racing incident at an inevitable pinch point.

Damningly, Toto Wolff and Russell agreed with that assessment when they were the victims in the situation. One wonders if the decision was shaped by the outcome (car 63’s retirement), rather than the offence itself.