Lewis Hamilton Hit With Italian Grand Prix Penalty For Bizarre Mistake

Hamilton was running comfortably seventh early in the race before Leclerc pitted from in front of him for new tires at the end of lap 22 as rain fell lightly across the track.

But as he left the pitlane, Hamilton ran wide at the Turn 3 banking, skirted wide and ran out of road to end his race on the side of the road with damage sustained to the right-hand side of his Ferrari.

That would be the scene of Leclerc's downfall later in the race as well, as he would be pitched into a spin by Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes as the pair battled for position.

While Hamilton would hope that a first Monza weekend with Ferrari in front of the Tifosi could present an opportunity for better fortune, he has instead been hit with a penalty before even arriving for failing to slow under double-waved yellows during reconnaissance laps before the race.

Detailing the reasons for handing Hamilton the five-place grid penalty, the FIA race stewards at Zandvoort explained that race director Rui Marques had given instruction to drivers that the final corner before the pitlane would be under double-waved yellow flag conditions during laps to the grid, meaning that speed should be reduced significantly.

The report continued: "We looked through the available telemetry within the FIA system. We also requested the team to provide us with their telemetry data. All of this took some time and this decision was delayed as a result. In addition, Article 44.1 requires all drivers covering more than one reconnaissance lap to drive down the pit entry road at ‘greatly reduced speed’.

"The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10% to 20% and had lifted and braked 70 metres earlier when entering the pit lane."

Explaining that they "did not consider that a 20kph reduction in speed at a double-waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly’" and that the speed reduction was also insufficient, the stewards did acknowledge Hamilton's attempt to slow and therefore used mitigation to bring the high-end sanction of 10-places down to five.