Pastor Maldonado has been given a 20s penalty by the FIA stewards after his collision with Lewis Hamilton.
He was deemed to have ‘failed to rejoin the track in a safe manner.’
No action has been taken against Hamilton, who was deemed to be the innocent party in the encounter.
Maldonado now drops from 10th to 12th place, with Bruno Senna moving up to take the position.
Some might regard it as escaping lightly, but the 20s is regarded as the post race equivalent of a drive through.
Senna had a drive through in the race while two drivers who did not finish have been given costly grid penalties for Silverstone, with Jean-Eric Vergne picking up 10 for his clash with Heikki Kovalainen, and Kamui Kobayashi getting five for his bump with Felipe Massa.
Adam Cooper F1 
The Maldanado penatly of 20s makes a mockery of what was an immature and dangerous manouevere – a five place grid penalty for the next race would have made him think more seriously about his actions. He can’t just keep running into other drivers on the track and getting away with this sort of behaviour. Its just not acceptable in the sport of racing to have these sorted of repeated incidents with the same individual involved time after time.
I don’t agree, I’m sorry. Vergne made a bad mistake but Maldonado has made the same mistake two times in a row (Montecarlo with Perez and here with Hamilton).
And then he gets away only with a 20s penalty? I don’t think the stewards were very objective today.
Quite Unfair.
Seems reasonable, I judged it more 50:50 than most were saying during / after the race. Lewis didn’t leave him any room & Maldonado didn’t t-bone Lewis as it was described in the BBC commentary.
I see it as more 90:10.
Lewis didn’t leave much room, but didn’t need to. Maldonado had gone in too deep, and had left the track totally. Most drivers at that point would get out of the throttle and wait until the track was safe to re-join, or, as seen by other drivers in that same section, use the run-off to join after the apex.
It could be said that Lewis should have left a bit more room, but we all know Lewis would never give any more than absolutely necessary…
It wasn’t quite a t-bone, but not far off. Maldonado definitely re-joined un-safely.
I agree with the penalty, its just a shame Lewis lost so many points!
I might go as far as 60:40 although it all seems a bit irrelevant, Lewis’s biggest obstacle seems to be his own teams inability to change 4 wheels since Sam Michael took charge of track side operations. Perhaps he’s still being paid by Williams.
Considering the penalties for other incidents I do think he got off lightly. Roll on Silverstone!
You dont have the option to leave room when your entering a corner at speed as Lewis did. Hamilton had the racing line and Maldanado reentered the track and taking hamilton off. Simples Maldanado 100% to blame.
After maldonado’s aggressive overtaking earlier in the race where he pushed people off the track he can’t complain at what lewis did. Definitely deserved the penalty, lewis was doing a great job holding his position with very little grip.
That is sad news. In my view Lewis breached article 16.1 sub e and article 16.1 sub f by forcing Maldonado off the track. Pastor did nothing wrong other then refused to be bullied out by Hamilton. Hamilton even caused the collision by taking the corner under the apparent misconception that Maldonado had vanished into thin air.
Again a failure of judgement by the FIA. I had expected something better from Mika Salo.
Marnix – what did you expect – Hamiltons hardly going to say to Maldanado oh just go ahead and pass me on the second last lap when I have fought to win the race. Maldanado was just too impetueus yet again and could have pulled out of the move on the outside.. Drivers race each other – their not there to simply give up the fight at the end. If you perform a stupid manouevere on a driver whose tires are knackered at the end of the race what do you expect – Maldanado should have been more patient and he would have got past on the last lap with DRS and KERs
Hamilton never once left the racing line, so how did he force him off?
If the stewards had enforced penalties for earlier infractions then Lewis wouldn’t have even been there. Wasn’t he under investigation for not slowing during a yellow yet again? As far as this incident is concerned, I believe if a penalty had to be thrown it should have been on Lewis.
Presumably the stewards must have decided Lewis DID slow sufficiently under the yellow flags earlier. As for the incident with Maldonado, to me it seems Maldonado was entirely to blame. At no point in his attempted manoeuvre was he ahead and able to claim the place off Lewis. He basically ran himself off the track and then ran into Lewis on rejoinining. Lewis had kept strictly to the racing line throughout the whole incident so I cannot see how you can suggest he should have had a penalty rather than Maldonado!! And then if Vergne was handed a 10 place grid penalty for causing a collision which put both cars out of the race then for Maldonado to merely lose one point when he cost Lewis a potential 14 points seems completely inequitable to me.
Maldonado gave “no room” to a load of the drivers he overtook. I haven’t watched the Grand Prix back but pretty sure he forced Raikkonen off the track in the first few laps and others as well, the only difference being Kimi is a proffesional who didn’t then drive into Maldonado. I think it’s pretty clear what a dirty driver Pastor is from the incident where he purposefully drove into Hamilton last season where in my mind he should have had a permanent ban. Anyways, the judges ruled against him with a virtually meaningless penalty, while Hamilton essentially ends up getting an even harsher penalty (0 points from what would’ve been a good points finish leading to the leaderboards being stretched out). I assume the rules state that was the ‘correct’ penalty but I think it should have been a DQF for Maldonado and either back of the grid start at Silverstone/ban from Silverstone.
I thought neither driver was correct in this instance. Maldonardo was actually ahead slightly as they went into the braking zone, and certainly a good amount alongside as they both turner into the corner. Lewis ran him out of road. I’m guessing from his (Lewis) ‘fight for every position’ statement post race this was intentional – which I thought was illegal this year (ironically after Lewis vs MSC @ Monza). It should be noted that Grosjean pulled the same move on Lewis earlier and he was also forced onto the kerb, but not over it allowing him to complete the move. I thought that in modern F1 if someone was alongside you had to leave a cars width of room on the outside of the track (having defended the inside?). That didn’t happen. It’s similar to the Bahrain Rosberg/Hamilton incident in many ways, one driver remains on track but forces another off.
When Maldonardo tries to get back on track he ends up with no front steering as he bumps over the kerb taking his front wheels off the tarmac and thus hitting Lewis. I don’t think that was his intention as he was on for good points, but merely a consequence of Pastor not wanting to give up on the overtake after being forced off the road.
In summary the accident was Pastor hitting Lewis, but the reason the whole thing happened is because Lewis forced Pastor off the track, and Pastor tried to force his way back on. Ergo the blame lies with both here, and I think that Pastor is perhaps unlucky in this instance.
Pasto ulucky? Surely Lewis was unlucky to lose so many points due to Pasto’s stupidity!!!
I meant Pastor was unlucky to get a penalty for an incident at which both drivers were at fault really. If Lewis didn’t push Pastor off track he doesn’t goes over said kerb, doesn’t lose his steering and doesn’t take Lewis out. Was Pastor stupid? Yes. Was Lewis stupid? Yes. It really takes two to tango for that sort of incident.
A driver that forces another off the track should be the first one receiving a penalty.