Lewis Hamilton has received a second penalty for parking in the Qualifying P1 spot at parc ferme and then refusing to leave. After a masterful qualifying session at the Hungaroring on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton believed he had ended a three-year pole drought – coming at this very circuit in 2023. So convinced was Hamilton that he opted to skip the verification step entirely. Parking his car in the wrong position, he walked away, leaving a confused FIA official attempting to make sense of the final grid by juggling the position boards. Meanwhile, Norris, the actual pole-sitter, arrived to find his parking spot taken, looped around parc ferme, and finally parked in the visitors’ section.
Hamilton was handed his first penalty, a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri. A confusing radio message from Santi, his engineer, left Hamilton sauntering down the racing line oblivious to Piastri being on a flyer behind him. He acknowledged what he later described as a warm and supportive thumbs-up from Piastri.
His second penalty came when he refused to vacate P1. The stewards’ revised grid had Hamilton’s starting position as the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus in central Budapest. Race Control confirmed that the 20km drive to the circuit will count as his out-lap. After navigating the Sunday traffic on the M3, he must still serve a mandatory pit-stop before joining the track. Pirelli could not confirm whether the hard compound tyres would be suited to tram tracks.
“If there is a mistake, it is our mistake,” Vasseur said, gesturing at the car, the hotel, and the general concept of communication.