Lewis Hamilton questions Ferrari pit stop after Hungarian Grand Prix penalty
Lewis Hamilton believes an unnecessary late pit stop cost him a podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix after he received a time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
The Ferrari driver was running in second place when a Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 56 to recover Oscar Piastri’s stricken McLaren.
His team opted for a third tyre change, a late strategic call that saw the 41-year-old surrender track position to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Compounding the error, stewards handed the seven-time world champion a five-second penalty for exceeding the 80kph pit-lane speed limit by just 0.1kph.
Strategic gamble backfires
Unable to pass Mercedes title rival Kimi Antonelli upon rejoining the circuit, he then failed to build a sufficient gap to team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The subsequent time sanction relegated him behind the sister Ferrari into fifth place in the final classification.
“I definitely don’t think we should have taken the stop.”
“The call came literally just before the pit-lane entry and I didn’t have time to debate and you’ve got to trust the decision that has been taken.”
“In hindsight, my tyres were totally fine. I was probably going to lose out to Max but I think I could have kept third at least.”
The British driver added that the late trip to the pits essentially opened the door to the subsequent speeding penalty.
A string of costly mistakes
The pit-lane infringement marked his second sanction of the Budapest weekend.
He had already served a three-place grid drop for impeding Piastri during the final phase of qualifying.
The former Mercedes star admitted the speeding error was entirely his own doing, noting he has made a series of missteps in recent weeks.
He has now collected four separate sporting penalties across the last three race weekends.