Lewis Hamilton hit with another penalty in blow to Hungarian GP hopes

Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of significantly denting Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead were dealt a blow after he was given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton looked to be the man to beat heading into qualifying at the Hungaroring and was on course for a record 10th pole position here before a messy final few minutes cost him. Ferrari looked well placed to end Mercedes’s run of having taken pole position for every grand prix this season. Instead, defending champion Lando Norris snuck in and took a superb pole for McLaren with a lap of 1min 17.207sec. A poor final lap from Hamilton was compounded by a grid penalty for impeding the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, meaning the seven-time champion will start fourth for the race at one of his most favoured circuits. The only consolation was that Antonelli was also given a three-place grid penalty for not slowing sufficiently under yellow flags. The Italian will start seventh while Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s team-mate, will be alongside Norris on the front row. Heading into the final runs in Q3, Hamilton was 0.101sec ahead of Norris, but did not improve his time. Yet Norris, who was fastest in Q1 and Q2, and was the last man across the line in Q3, had no problem, beating Hamilton’s time by 0.012sec. Hamilton was critical of his Ferrari team for sending him out first, a decision he said “shocked” him. “I don’t know why we went first, that was a bit of a shock to me and I definitely wouldn’t have chosen to go first,” Hamilton said. “I had a clean out-lap and when I started my lap and already in turn one I had a snap [of oversteer], I was already a tenth down. The last lap was the worst lap of all... we clearly had the car to be on pole.” Worse was on the way for Hamilton. The stewards later confirmed the three-place grid penalty to add to the disappointment of missing out on pole. Replays showed a frustrated Piastri gesturing to Hamilton for blocking him at turn one, ruining the Australian’s final flying lap. Hamilton said he was unaware that Piastri was there, which was proved by video evidence that showed how much he impeded the McLaren. It would have been an easy decision for the stewards to make.