Lewis Hamilton was demoted three places on the grid after he was found to have impeded Sergio Perez in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 after failing to finish in the top 10 in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, and his Saturday got even worse when the seven-time F1 world champion was summoned to the race control.

Lewis Hamilton is penalized for blocking Sergio Perez

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper.

Hamilton attempted to avoid the rapidly approaching Sergio Perez as the Red Bull driver set a flying lap, but the nature of Turn 9, which he was entering, meant he was unable to give the Mexican enough space.

The incident left Perez feeling annoyed at the Mercedes driver’s behaviour and angrily shouting over the radio to race engineer Richard Woods: “What the hell is that idiot doing?!”, whereupon Hamilton told his race engineer Pete Bonnington: “I was way out of his way.”

Perez made another attempt on the soft tyres to get into Q2, but his anger had not yet subsided when he was told at the end of Q1 that he had made it.

“Yeah, but we wasted a damn set, so… here you go,” he said.

“I have been punished for worse, so I expect nothing less.”

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Hamilton was now given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Perez. This would have seen him drop to 15th place when the start was stopped on Sunday in Zandvoort. After Alex Albon’s disqualification a few moments later for driving with an illegal underbody, he would have moved up to 14th place.

In their assessment of the incident that led to the penalty, the race stewards wrote in their verdict: “Although there was an appropriate warning from the team and although the driver (Hamilton) attempted to move out of the way, he could have braked more sharply so as not to impede the other car and therefore consider the obstruction to be unnecessary within the meaning of the regulations.”

In discussions with the media, including PlanetF1.comAfter the session, Hamilton said he did his best to avoid Perez.

“Yeah, not ideal, it was a difficult session,” he said after qualifying in 12th place.

“I did. I really tried my best to stay out of the way as much as possible. It just didn’t work.”

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