Lewis Hamilton has been demoted three places for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix for impeding Sergio Perez, adding insult to injury to a disastrous day for the Mercedes driver.

Hamilton had originally qualified P12 after missing the Q2 cut. The penalty drops him to P15 and Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen move up one place on Sunday’s grid.

Hamilton is said to have impeded Perez on the first qualifying lap. The Red Bull was on his second fast lap on his first set of tyres when he encountered Hamilton at Turn 9.

Hamilton moved to the outside of the corner to let the Mexican pass, but Perez came wide of him on the exit and was forced to slow down, ruining his flying lap and subsequently retiring.

Hamilton had been warned of approaching traffic from behind, first from Kevin Magnussen in the Haas and then from Perez. “I don’t understand it, I went completely wide at turn nine,” he said. “I tried to make it look like I was in his way.”

Perez made another attempt and was indeed fastest in Q1, but he had to use an additional set of soft tyres, which will have an impact on the race.

“(Hamilton) was on an inlap and was informed by the team that (Perez) was on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8,” the stewards reported. “He then came off the line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention of yielding right of way.”

“However, when (Perez) arrived, (Hamilton) had already entered Turn 9 and was heading back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, clearly causing obstruction,” the race director continued.

“The race director concludes that although the driver received an appropriate warning from the team and attempted to take evasive action, he could have braked harder so as not to impede the other car.

“(We) therefore consider the obstruction to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations. There will therefore be a reduction in the network in accordance with the previous decisions.”

Although Hamilton officially drops to P15, a later decision by Race Control to exclude Alex Albon from today’s session due to a technical infringement on the FW46 will move him back up one place.

And Tsunoda, Hülkenberg and Magnussen will all move up one place, a total of two compared to their positions at the end of qualifying.

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