Why Hamilton was penalised at Spa while Leclerc escaped sanction

Lewis Hamilton was penalised because stewards ruled George Russell was sufficiently alongside him and entitled to space before their opening-lap collision. Charles Leclerc avoided a penalty because Oscar Piastri was judged not to be far enough alongside to claim the same right to racing room.

The distinction turned on the details of Formula 1’s driving guidelines. In Hamilton’s case, the stewards said Russell stayed within the space available and that Hamilton’s slide caused the contact, though the penalty was reduced to five seconds because Hamilton had tried to avoid the crash and the incident happened on lap one.

Leclerc’s contact with Piastri was more debatable, even though the official decision was no further action. The stewards found Piastri had only partial overlap and no realistic chance of completing the move from that position, while also deciding Leclerc had not intentionally forced him off track.

The decisions came on a dramatic Spa weekend in which Kimi Antonelli won from pole for Mercedes, Leclerc finished second and Max Verstappen took third. Antonelli now leads the drivers’ standings by 45 points, while Hamilton moved up to second after finishing fourth and Russell retired from the race.

Beyond the stewarding debate, Spa also raised bigger questions for F1: the race drew a reported record weekend crowd of 400,000, yet its current deal means it will not appear every year, with the Belgian Grand Prix absent from Spa in 2028 and 2030.