Lewis Hamilton has been dealt a three-place grid penalty for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix after the stewards ruled he impeded Max Verstappen during the opening phase of qualifying.
The incident occurred during Q1 at the entry to Massenet, where Hamilton was lapping slowly off the racing line while Verstappen, who had just started a flying lap, approached at speed. The Red Bull driver was forced to alter his trajectory, abandoning the ideal line and voicing his frustration over team radio.
Both drivers progressed through the session, ultimately qualifying fourth (Hamilton) and fifth (Verstappen) after a dramatic pole battle between Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc. But post-session investigations by race stewards led to a revised grid for Sunday’s race.
Verstappen promoted given Monaco Hamilton penalty
According to the stewards’ statement, Car 44 (Hamilton) was alerted by his Ferrari team that Car 1 (Verstappen) was on a push lap, before receiving a second radio message incorrectly suggesting Verstappen was “slowing down.”
Believing Verstappen was no longer on a hot lap, Hamilton increased his speed and drifted into the racing line approaching Turn 3, directly in the path of the charging Red Bull. “Car 1 had to react to Car 44 appearing to move into the racing line. This meant that Car 1 had to move off the usual racing line and the push lap had to be aborted by Car 1,” read the official ruling.
The stewards confirmed that an examination of Verstappen’s previous laps demonstrated that Hamilton did indeed impede the Red Bull driver, as he had entered the same line Verstappen had consistently used during earlier qualifying runs.
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“The driver of Car 44 expressed his displeasure at the incorrect message from the team immediately after the incident,” the stewards noted. “During the hearing, the fact of the team’s incorrect message leading to the incident was accepted by the driver of Car 44.”
However, they were clear that miscommunication was no defence. “As with previous incidents of this nature where a driver has received inaccurate or incomplete information resulting in a car impeding another, the fact that the radio message was the cause of the impeding does not amount to a mitigating factor. We therefore impose the standard penalty of a drop of three grid positions.”
As a result, Hamilton falls from fourth to seventh on the Monaco Grand Prix grid. Verstappen inherits fourth, while Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso also gain one position each to start fifth and sixth respectively.
Hamilton joins Ollie Bearman, who received a 10-place penalty for a red flag infraction, and Lance Stroll, who was penalised for incidents in both FP1 and qualifying, in receiving post-session penalties.
The revised starting order will see Norris, Leclerc, and Piastri form the front three, with Verstappen now in a stronger position to challenge in a race where track position is everything.
