Lewis Hamilton branded race officials’ decision to slap him with a 10-second penalty as “so s***” during the Mexican Grand Prix. The Englishman was sanctioned for departing the track whilst securing an advantage over Max Verstappen.
It arrived as a devastating setback for the Ferrari F1 ace, who was sitting in third position at that moment following 17 laps of the contest with the seven-time world champion going on to finish eighth. And Hamilton didn’t hesitate to make his views on the ruling perfectly clear via his team radio.
When his engineer announced: “We have 10 second penalty for the incident at turn four with Verstappen. We don’t agree,” the 40 year old responded: “That’s so s***, man.” Pointing the finger at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit for the mistake, he continued: “The grip is so small there. The grip there is so low.”
Hamilton swiftly headed back to the pits to complete his penalty, rejoining the racing in 14th position in a massive setback to his ambitions of claiming victory. Mere moments afterwards, Fernando Alonso became the third racer compelled to withdraw from the Mexican Grand Prix due to a mechanical fault.
Liam Lawson was forced to abandon proceedings early on, whilst Nico Hulkenberg also encountered mechanical difficulties shortly after Hamilton completed his penalty. Carlos Sainz was also unable to finish the race which saw a virtual safety car deployed during the final lap.
Hamilton entered the competition sixth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, trailing 202 points behind Oscar Piastri’s leading position. He has since been overtaken by McLaren team-mate Lando Norris. It’s been a challenging season for Hamilton after the F1 legend decided to leave Mercedes and take on a fresh challenge with Ferrari.
So far, he hasn’t managed to secure a single Grand Prix victory this season, with his top performances being fourth place in the Italian, Austrian, British and US GPs.
Although he’s no longer in the running for the Drivers’ Championship, he’ll be aiming to end the year on a high note in the final four races in Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
