'If you no longer go for a gap, you’re no longer...' - Lewis Hamilton quotes his idol Ayrton Senna with lunt statement after on-track contact with Sergio Perez

The five-second penalty imposed at the 2023 Belgian GP’s sprint race did not go down well with the veteran racer Lewis Hamilton. The penalty was handed to Hamilton after his clash with Sergio Perez; later, he called it just a ‘racing incident’. He further shielded his move and said it was not intentional but just happened due to poor visibility.

Just after the cars of Perez and Hamilton came in contact, the former accused the Brit of damaging his car. In the further line of events, the seven-time world champion was handed a penalty which led to his demotion from fourth place to seventh place later in the classification.

Not really much to say - Lewis Hamilton

“Not really much to say, the racing incident I think, tried to go up the inside, yep, not much to say. Surprised it was an in-race decision, before speaking to you, yesterday we had to wait?” said Hamilton to the journalists after the sprint.

“Yeah. I mean my only thought is its tricky conditions out there, we’re all trying our best, and of course, it wasn’t intentional. I think I went for a gap, he was slow going through 14, I went up the inside, I was more than half a car length on the inside, and if you no longer go for a gap you’re no longer a racing driver as Ayrton said, so that’s what I did. When I watched it back it felt like a racing incident to me, so yep,” he added later.

Hamilton was also asked if he could decide to appeal the decision; responding to this, he cleared there’s not really much to say over this. “In a race like today, I honestly don’t really care too much, you don’t get too many points, of course, it would have been nice to have finished fourth but I don’t really care to finish fourth I want to win. Fourth, seventh, doesn’t really make a difference," said Hamilton