Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver says ‘heart sank’ when his car hit mechanic in Belgian GP pit stop as team fined by stewards | F1 News

Lewis Hamilton says his “heart really sank” when his Ferrari hit a mechanic in a pit-stop incident that led to the team being fined heavily by Belgian Grand Prix stewards.

Hamilton’s right-front tyre struck the mechanic – who was unhurt – after the driver was given the green signal to leave the team’s pit box, briefly knocking the crew member, who was in front of the wheel in an attempt to make a front-wing adjustment, to his knees.

Hamilton promptly stopped his car as the mechanic was helped to his feet, before leaving the pit box.

The incident was placed under a post-race stewards’ investigation with Ferrari later handed a €30,000 fine, €10,000 of which is suspended for a year.

Ferrari admitted to an “inappropriately late instruction for the wing adjustment, a lack of clear communication and the mechanic’s failure to notice the green light” amid a “complex and unusual combination of circumstances” at a stop which Hamilton had first served a five-second penalty before work on the car commenced.

With no fault attributed to the driver, who stewards said had also suffered a “sporting disadvantage” anyway due to the fact he was delayed in leaving the pit stop, Hamilton retained his fourth-place finish in the race.

The result moved Hamilton back into second place ahead of George Russell in the Drivers’ Championship with a deficit of 45 points to Kimi Antonelli, the race winner at Spa-Francorchamps.

Speaking about the pit stop confusion after the race, Hamilton said his mind had immediately flashed back to an incident at the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix when a botched Ferrari stop for Kimi Raikkonen caused a mechanic, Francesco Cigarini, to suffer a double leg fracture.

Hamilton was therefore relieved to be told that the mechanic involved on Sunday was not injured, when he enquired about him over team radio.

“The green light went and so I went,” said Hamilton to Sky Sports F1.

“You’re looking over here [to the left at the lights] you’re not looking over there so that’s more probably on the team, ultimately.

“But when it happened, then I noticed him and I stopped and it just went through my mind in that moment was back when Kimi hit and [a mechanic] broke a leg and my heart really sank for a second.

“I’m really grateful he’s OK.”

‘We could have been challenging for the win’ – Hamilton rues consequence of his Saturday crash

Hamilton’s stop had already been elongated by the fact that Ferrari’s crew had first had to wait five seconds before starting the car’s tyre change owing to the serving of a time penalty for causing a collision with Russell at Les Combes on the opening lap.

The clash spun Russell out of the race, although the Mercedes driver later blamed his own car’s straight-line speed issues, rather than former team-mate Hamilton, for the incident at the end of the long Kemmel Straight.

Hamilton also preferred not to focus on the specifics of the collision in his post-race interview, instead taking the blame for not qualifying higher than sixth, which became fifth on the grid due to Lando Norris’ engine penalty, after crashing in Saturday’s final practice session.

“I don’t count on myself [being] unlucky, I think about my mistake that I made yesterday, so I take full responsibility really for the fourth place that I ended up getting,” he said.

“I damaged the car then when they rebuilt the car they missed something on the suspension so the balance was completely different so it meant I was probably a good couple of tenths – maybe three tenths – slower than I should have been in qualifying.

“Then I ended up further back, got in the incident. Five second penalty, so like a domino effect from a mistake from myself.

“But the team have been doing a great job with strategy, pit stops. We are continuing to improve the car. I think our pace today, without the damage, we could have been challenging for the win.”

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