Hamilton will lose three places at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix

      Lewis Hamilton has been fined and will lose three places at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix, i.e. he will start not from 4th, but from 7th position. The stewards punished the Ferrari driver for interfering with Max Verstappen during qualifying, and this happened in the first session due to the fault of the team.

      Riccardo Adami, the seven-time world champion's racing engineer, told Lewis over the radio that Verstappen, who was driving behind car No. 44 at the time, was on a slow lap, when in fact the Red Bull Racing driver was starting a fast lap.

      Thus, Verstappen will start tomorrow's race behind Lando Norris, Charles Leclair and Oscar Piastri from 4th position.

      The stewards' verdict reads: "Car No. 44 was on a slow lap and off the race track as Hamilton approached Turn 2. Car No. 1 was on a fast lap and was approaching car No. 44.

      The team first informed the driver of Car No. 44 that Car No. 1 was on a fast lap, which was followed by another message stating that Car No. 1 was "slowing down". As a result, Car No. 44 accelerated and, before the 3rd turn, shifted to the trajectory on which car No. 1 was located. Due to the fact that car No. 44 shifted to the racing trajectory, the driver of car No. 1 had to react.

      This meant that Car No. 1 had to shift from its normal racing trajectory, and its driver had to break a fast lap..."

      The stewards had no doubt that Max Verstappen had been thwarted by a Ferrari car, while Lewis Hamilton expressed his displeasure on the radio immediately after the incident due to the fact that he had been given an incorrect message.

      During the trial, Lewis agreed with the arguments of the stewards. There have been cases in the past when one of the drivers, having received inaccurate or incomplete information from the team, interfered with the other, and the fact that Hamilton himself was not responsible for the incident is not considered a mitigating circumstance. Therefore, he received a standard penalty – minus three starting positions.