Lewis Hamilton handed five place grid penalty for Italian Grand Prix

Emily Nicole

Lewis Hamilton handed five place grid penalty for Italian Grand Prix image

Lewis Hamilton has been handed a five place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix, before even hitting the track. 

It will be his first race at Monza as a Ferrari driver and will already be a tough fight. 

The seven-time World Champion was handed the penalty after the Dutch Grand Prix for an infringement before lights out.

The penalty was dealt after Hamilton failed to reduce his speed under double yellow safety flags before the race began. 

In the FIA's ruling, they found that Car 44 did not "significantly" reduce speed at the flagged area or "greatly" reduce speed at the pit lane entry. 

The incident was set the be investigated after the race in Zandvoort and applied to Hamilton's race time, however he crashed out of the race early on, leaving the penalty to be applied for the next race.

A bad day at the office for Ferrari

It was the first double DNF for Ferrari since Canada 2024 and cost them a good deal of points in their constructors championship fight. 

The uncharacteristic move came at the infamous banked Turn 3. The forecasted rain started to spit down, effecting track conditions and the Brit took too much speed into the corner, leading him into the barriers.

A disappointing end to what started off as a positive weekend for Hamilton, after a tough first half to the season. 

Hamilton said after the race; "I wanted to go long, my tyres were still feeling good. It just took me by complete surprise, what just happened there. I lost the rear end up the bank, and that was it."

Things only got worse for the Prancing Horses when Charles Leclerc was taken out by Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli. 

Ferrari took the risk of pitting the Monegasque onto soft compound tyres, despite the driver feeling confident on his hard compounds. 

As he exited the pits, he came out in front of Antonelli, who then decided to take a late, deep lunge at Turn 3 where he ended up oversteering and clipping into the side of the Ferrari - tearing off its front wing and nose. 

Leclerc's race ended in the exact same spot as his teammate. 

A shame for the pair and the team as both were running in the points with a lot more pace than initially expected.

Now they have to prepare for Ferrari's home race in Monza and hope they can make up for the disappointment of Zandvoort. 

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Emily Nicole

Emily Nicole is a freelance contributor for The Sporting News. Emily is a sports journalist, with a passion for motorsport with professional experience across print, broadcast and social media. Emily holds a Journalism Bachelor’s Degree and a Media & Communications Master’s Degree, both from City, University of London. You can follow more of Emily's work on The F1 Rundown on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@thef1rundown).