Lewis Hamilton hit with grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez in the qualifying session for the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday, August 24.

The incident occurred in the Q1 session while Hamilton was on his in-lap. Perez encountered the slow-moving Mercedes driver on the exit of Turn 9, blocking the racing line. The Mexican driver immediately aired his frustrations over the radio, with drivers and team representatives being summoned to the stewards after the session.

After reviewing the evidence, the Stewards decided Hamilton had breached Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations. The explanation provided by the stewards suggested that the Mercedes driver was warned about the fast-approaching Red Bull car and could have slowed down even more, so as not to impede Perez on his fast lap.

Following a shock Q2 exit, Hamilton was handed a three-place grid penalty. An excerpt from the FIA document read:

"The Stewards determine 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."

Williams F1 driver Alex Albon was disqualified from the qualifying session for a technical infringement, after having secured an eighth-place starting position. Hamilton will start from 14th position on the grid for the Dutch GP.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have locked out the front row for the 72-lap race. Hamilton's teammate George Russell qualified 10 spots ahead, sharing the second row with McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.

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Lewis Hamilton reflects on "shocking" qualifying session

After setting quick lap times in the early part of the qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton looked to be in the mix at the front. However, his outing took a turn for the worse after impeding Perez. A scrappy final lap in the Q2 session put an end to his qualifying efforts.

The seven-time champion reflected on the qualifying session on Sky Sports F1.

"It was a pretty shocking session. These things happen and it's done now but it doesn't feel good. It all went badly from the moment with Perez happened. I did my best to get out of the way, I was far to the left as possible, but timing was bad," he said.

"It was a domino effect, it went from bad to worse."

Hamilton has finished second, fourth, and sixth in the previous three editions of the Dutch GP, and will be aiming to score points from a 14th-place starting position this weekend.