Hamilton more than halfway towards an F1 race ban

Lewis Hamilton has been handed two penalty points for his clash with Alexander Albon during the Austrian Grand Prix, moving him to within five points of a Formula 1 race ban.

The six-times world champion now has a total of seven penalty points and is more than halfway towards being banned from a grand prix.

Drivers will be forced to miss a world championship race if they accumulate 12 penalty points on their superlicence within the space of 12 months.

Hamilton had already received two penalty points for failing to slow for yellow flags during qualifying, leading to him being given a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s Austrian GP.

The Mercedes driver then collided with Albon’s Red Bull in the closing stages and was slapped with a five-second time penalty that dropped him to fourth at the finish.

Following an investigation into the incident, the Austrian GP stewards concluded that Hamilton had been “predominately to blame”.

History repeats itself for Albon and Hamilton #AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/3FR1oxG2cd

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 5, 2020

“The stewards reviewed video evidence showing that cars 23 [Albon] and 44 [Hamilton] were side by side approaching the apex of turn four,” the stewards noted.

“They negotiated the turn side by side, but car 23 had a better exit and was in the process of passing car 44.

“Car 44 was drafting to the outside at the exit of turn four and consequently making contact with the rear right wheel of car 23, causing car 23 to spin.

“The stewards determined that the driver of car 44 is predominantly to blame for the collision.”

A visibly disappointed Hamilton accepted his punishment after the race and admitted his costly mistake in Q3 was “entirely my fault”.

“Yesterday was entirely my fault, it was a bit odd in the preparation [to the race] that they gave the penalty but it is what it is,” Hamilton said.

“It didn’t destabilise me, it encouraged me to just go out there and drive the best I could.

“It was a really unfortunate situation with Alex, I can’t believe we’ve come together again but it really felt like a racing incident.

“Either way, I’ll take whatever penalty they feel I deserve and move forwards.”