Hamilton is enfuriated by ten-second penalty as Bottas wins

A FUMING Lewis Hamilton yesterday accused Formula One officials of being out to get him after a tensecond penalty denied the Mercedes driver a record-equalling victory at the Russian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was penalised by the stewards for performing two illegal practice starts in Sochi ahead of a race in which he had hoped to claim his 91st victory to match Michael Schumacher’s all-time tally. However, the penalty dropped the six-times world champion out of contention.

With Hamilton out of the way, his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas marched to a regulation victory, crossing the line 7.7 seconds clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton finished a distant third.

“I’m pretty sure no-one has ever got two five-second penalties for something so ridiculous before,” Hamilton said after the race.

“I didn’t put anyone in danger, I’ve done this at a million tracks over the years and never been questioned – but it is to be expected. They are trying to stop me. Whenever a team is at the front, you face scrutiny. Everything on our car is checked, doublechecked, triple-checked. It feels like we are fighting uphill.”

After roaring to pole position at the Sochi Autodrom, Hamilton headed into yesterday’s race as the favourite to rewrite the sport’s record books. But his hopes went up in smoke just moments after he left his garage, when he dialled the Mercedes pit wall to see where he could perform a practice start.

Hamilton asked: “Can I go out further [of the pits] or not?” His race engineer, Pete Bonnington, replied: “A-firm.”

The world champion asked “To the end of the pit wall?” The reply was: “Yes, copy.” But Bonnington’s call was a breach of the rules, and Hamilton was under investigation before the race had even begun.

Despite holding off Bottas at the getaway and again at the restart – after the safety car was deployed following two separate crashes involving McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll on the opening lap – Hamilton was hit with two five-second penalties.

“That is bull****,” the Briton said, when informed of the punishment. “Where is that in the rulebook?”

Article 36.1 of the sporting regulations requires drivers “to use constant throttle and constant speed in the pit exit,” and the stewards deemed that Hamilton (pictured left) broke the rule by “performing his practice start near the end, but directly in the pit exit”.

Hamilton served his penalty when he came in for new rubber on lap 16.

Sitting, shaking his head, he was on the radio again. “This is just ridiculous,” he said.

The 35-year-old dropped to 11th, 36 seconds behind Bottas, and his maiden shot at matching Schumacher’s record was over in a flash.

Later yesterday, the stewards reversed their initial decision to give Hamilton two penalty points. Instead, his Mercedes team were fined £23,000 after explaining that they were at fault for the pre-race infringement, and that Hamilton was merely following Bonnington’s instructions. It means Hamilton will revert to eight points on his licence, four short of the 12 that would see him handed a one-race ban.

On an otherwise turgid afternoon in front of tens of thousands of fans – the largest sporting spectator gathering of the Covid-19 era – Sergio Perez finished fourth for Racing Point ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.