Mercedes boss Toto Wolff thinks Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty for a late clash with Alex Albon in the Austrian Grand Prix was “too harsh”.
Hamilton was battling Albon after the final safety car period of the race when they clashed at the Turn 4 right-hander as the Red Bull driver tried to take second around the outside.
The stewards investigated the incident and decided that Hamilton was at fault and should have given his Red Bull rival more room.
Hamilton finished second on the road in Austria, but the five-second penalty meant he slipped behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris on corrected time into fourth spot.
Speaking about the incident, Wolff felt that Hamilton could not have done anything differently as he was already on full lock with his steering.
“The stewards are always in a difficult position to take the right decisions,” said Wolff afterwards.
“I think today was a bad day for Lewis and a bad day for the team.
“Obviously the three grid position penalty that he got in the morning, with Red Bull digging out a different camera angle, you have to take it on the chin, and it is what it is.
“Then in the race, I would definitely say, from my perspective, the five seconds were too harsh. We looked at the video now a couple of times.
“Lewis was having full lock in the corner. Albon had about 40% of the road left to make the corner and it was different to lap one: where Lewis had to back out of Albon pushing Lewis.
“So in my opinion, [the penalty] not justified. But I recognise the complexity of the job, of coming up with the right decisions. Some go for you, some go against you.”
Albon reckoned that the clash with Hamilton cost him a shot at his maiden F1 race win, and it is the second time that he has seen a potential podium finish snatched away from him after a late incident with the world champion.
In Brazil last year, Hamilton was also handed a five-second penalty for punting Albon into a spin.
Hamilton also received two penalty points for the collision to compound a bad day for the reigning world champion, which began with a three-place grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement in qualifying he was originally cleared of after Red Bull lodged a protest.