Why Hamilton received a penalty from the stewards and Leclerc did not

Hamilton was given a five-second penalty for the incident with George Russell on the opening lap of the Grand Prix. Russell attempted to go around the outside of Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion hit his former teammate, who as a result ended up stuck in the gravel and was unable to continue.

According to the stewards, Russell was clearly alongside Hamilton and had established sufficient overlap to be entitled to racing room from the Ferrari driver. Due to understeer from Hamilton, he made contact with Russell. The stewards stated that Russell gave Hamilton enough space, but the same was not true the other way around.

Although the stewards noted there were mitigating circumstances for Hamilton, he was still deemed fully at fault for the incident. Because it happened on the opening lap, however, Hamilton received five seconds instead of ten from the stewards.

After reviewing the footage, teammate Charles Leclerc was cleared of any penalty. The Monegasque made contact with Oscar Piastri while defending, causing the Australian to run the rest of the race with front-wing damage. The stewards explained why Leclerc, unlike his teammate, did not receive a time penalty,

According to the stewards, Piastri did get alongside Leclerc in the overtaking attempt, but his front axle did not get ahead of Leclerc, making the likelihood of the move succeeding negligible. The stewards also judged that Leclerc did not deliberately steer wide, but simply followed the racing line, during which he touched Piastri.

For Russell, the race was effectively over after the incident with Hamilton. Despite his time penalty, Hamilton still finished fourth. Oscar Piastri came home fifth, Charles Leclerc was not penalized and ultimately finished second behind winner Kimi Antonelli.

Russell considered it a racing incident and disagreed with Hamilton’s penalty: "I shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. And that's why I'm most angry. The incident with Lewis, obviously, I think, was a race incident. He didn't do it on purpose. So, yeah, he was more to blame than I was, but he didn't do anything reckless."