The FIA’s official explanation for Lewis Hamilton’s three-place grid penalty before the Dutch Grand Prix has surprised fans.

Hamilton was adjudged to have impeded Sergio Perez during the first session of qualifying at Zandvoort.

The stewards did not penalise the seven-time world champion during the session itself, investigating it after qualifying ended instead.

The penalty means Hamilton, who initially qualified a disappointing 12th after failing to get out Q2, will start 14th – having moved up a place following Alex Albon’s disqualification.

A close call between Lewis and Checo 👀 pic.twitter.com/moBAHQZgTB

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 24, 2024

The official reasoning for the penalty reads: “The driver of Car 44 [Hamilton], being on an in lap, was informed by the team that Car 11 [Perez] was approaching on a fast lap when he entered Turn 8.

“He then drove off line at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention to give way for Car 11. However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and drove back towards the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, thereby clearly impeding Car 11.

“The Stewards determine that, whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations.

“Therefore a grid drop is applied in line with previous decisions.”

In response, one fan wrote: “He actually had slowed down so much that maybe he should have come to a complete halt?”

A second asked: “If he’d slowed down more, wouldn’t they have made contact?”

A third wrote: “As a Red Bull fan, I disagree with this. Lewis knew that Checo was on a flyer and was as out of the way as he could have been. Zandvoort isn’t conducive to modern F1.”