Explained: Why Lewis Hamilton was penalized during the 2024 F1 Dutch GP qualifying

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Red Bull driver Sergio Perez at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix qualifying session on Saturday, August 24. The 7-time world champion had a difficult afternoon at Zandvoort as he failed to make it out of Q2 in the all-important session and qualified P12 for the race.

Heading into the qualifying session, the Brit was in the hunt for higher starting positions after having displayed a rapid pace in the Friday practice sessions. However, he was unable to replicate his performances and struggled in the windy conditions with the balance of his car.

In the Q1 session, Lewis Hamilton, on his build lap, impeded Sergio Perez on turns 10 and 11 sequences which compromised the latter's fast lap. The 39-year-old did leave the door open for Perez in Turn 10 to get his RB20 and moved enough to force him to abort.

The Mexican driver was raging on the radio and even called the Mercedes driver an "idiot" as the impeding meant that Perez had to take an extra set of new soft tires to get out of the session.

Lewis Hamilton, to his credit, did try his best to get out of the way but his W15 moved enough to disturb Perez on a fast lap in Q1. The stewards noted the incident and deemed it severe enough for a penalty after the qualifying session. The stewards' statement read (via F1.com):

“The Stewards determined that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”

Sergio Perez gives his take on Lewis Hamilton penalty

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez admitted that Lewis Hamilton did try his best to get out of the way but was in favor of the seven-time world champion getting penalized. He mentioned that he had been punished for way less.

Speaking with RacingNews365, the 34-year-old said:

"He has tried his best [to get out of the way] but unfortunately, we just ended up in the wrong [place] at the wrong time. The stewards have been really strict this year, and I've got penalties for a lot worse than that, so I do expect him to get a penalty, unfortunately.

"I think he did the best he could [to get out of the way], and there probably should be a little more [margin given] in that regard, but it is what it is."

As a result of the penalty, Lewis Hamilton was demoted to P15 which became P14 after Williams F1 driver Alex Albon was disqualified from qualifying for floor irregularities.