Lewis Hamilton exceeded the speed limit at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix with Ferrari by releasing his pit stop 0.1 km/h too early, resulting in a 5-second penalty and dropping him from fourth to fifth place. Team principal Fred Vasseur confirmed the error: the driver closed the limiter slightly too early upon exiting the pit lane.
Expensive pit stops during virtual safety car era
Hamilton, running in second place on lap 56 at Hungaroring, pitted during the virtual safety car period declared after Oscar Piastri stopped due to a gearbox failure before lap 4. This stop proved costly for two reasons: Hamilton, emerging from the pit stop, fell behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, who did not stop; and he also received a 5-second penalty for a speeding violation at the pit exit. Finishing fourth, Hamilton dropped to fifth place after the penalty, behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Vasseur assessed the situation in an interview with Canal+: ’This result is not good at all. We cannot be satisfied with this. We made too many mistakes today; starting from both starts. Then we lost positions to Verstappen on track and made mistakes during the pit stops. The pit limiter was released too early. As a result, it is not good.“
Three-week sentence chain
The five-second penalty in Hungary was the latest in a series of penalties for the 41-year-old British driver, spanning the last three race weekends. He received five seconds for a false start at Silverstone and another five seconds at the Belgian Grand Prix at Les Combes for contact with George Russell on lap 1. During the Belgian weekend, Ferrari was also fined for an unsafe release that led to Hamilton hitting a mechanic at the pit entrance. In Hungarian qualifying, Hamilton's cutting off Piastri on lap 1, which Ferrari described as a "communication error," resulted in a three-place grid penalty; Hamilton started fifth instead of second on Sunday.
Vasseur commented on the consecutive penalties: “It’s difficult to put all the penalties in the same basket. The Russell incident was an in-race event for me; I would have liked him to do it again because he couldn’t have gotten on with his caravan. I think there were a number of mistakes today: he locked the wheel at the pit stop, we lost a few seconds, and then he went a little too early trying to find the optimum at the pit exit. When you make one mistake, it becomes very easy to make multiple mistakes; this weekend is a good example of that. His pace was good, but we couldn’t overtake Verstappen first, then Piastri. Lessons have been learned for the rest of the season.”