Lewis Hamilton Cops a 10 Second Stop and Go Penalty Following Pitstop Folly at the Italian GP

The Italian Grand Prix has thrown several curveballs, and the race is not over yet. Now, it appears that Lewis Hamilton is under investigation for entering the pit lane while it was closed. The 6-time World Champion was not the only one in trouble, because Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi got caught as well.

After an investigation, the FIA announced that Giovinazzi and Hamilton will earn a 10-second stop and go penalty. At that time, Kevin Magnussen had stopped on the track close to the pit lane entry. Obviously, the FIA had to close the pit lane entry in order to retrieve the Haas car.

What will happen to Lewis Hamilton now?

Unfortunately, neither Giovinazzi nor Hamilton got the memo on time and are set to pay the price. For the moment, the red flag has been deployed because Charles Leclerc crashed out on the exit of Parabolica.

So when the race resumes, Lewis Hamilton and Antonio Giovinazzi will have to enter the pit lane and stop for 10 seconds. What this means is that the two drivers could potentially lose at least 30 seconds to their rivals.

Of course, things could have been much worse for them, considering that the two Ferraris and Kevin Magnussen retired. However, this is a long race and a driver of Hamilton’s caliber can make his way up the order quickly. Once he does this, he can salvage something from this race.

Apparently, Mercedes’ plan is to take the penalty within two laps of the restart. In a way, this could be a good call for the team to just get the penalty out of the way early. Once that happens, he can try and put his head down and begin his charge up the order.

One thing is for sure, a Mercedes AMG win could be difficult unless Valtteri Bottas can pull off a miracle.