Why does Hamilton have a penalty for the incident with Perez?
Similar incidents in the past have seen a penalty handed to the offending driver, though Hamilton will have argued he did all he could not to block Perez.
He had virtually parked his Mercedes on the grass run-off to try and avoid Perez, though did appear in the way of the 34-year-old at the exit of the swooping Turn 9.
Perez certainly felt Hamilton deserved a penalty, asking, “What the f*** is this idiot doing?” over over team radio
“I was well out of his way,” said Hamilton shortly after, whose uncomfortable qualifying ended prematurely with a shock Q2 exit.
Over team radio in the aftermath of Q1, Perez was still unimpressed despite getting through: “Yeah but we f****** waste a set [of extra tyres] so please, for worse than that I’ve been penalised, so I don’t expect any less.”
Having been handed a penalty by the FIA, Hamilton will start from P14 having gone out of Q2 in 12th with a messy lap.
It would have been P15 had Alex Albon not been disqualified from P8 following a technical infringement.
After winning two of the past three races, it is a difficult return after the summer break for the outgoing Silver Arrows man.