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Lewis Hamilton's miserable Dutch Grand Prix weekend has been worsened by a three-place grid penalty.
Hamilton earned the three-place grid penalty from the stewards for impeding Sergio Perez in Q1, demoting him from an initial 12th to 15th on the grid - although Alex Albon's subsequent disqualification means Hamilton will start 14th.
While Hamilton took to the edge of the track to try to avoid the Red Bull driver, the nature of the Turn 2 right-hander meant he was firmly in Perez's path in Q1 while the Red Bull driver was on a push lap.
The stewards accepted the mitigating circumstances but believe it was still avoidable, saying "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 [we] consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations".
They cited a three-place grid drop as being in line with previous incidents - the verdict didn't specify which exactly but three places have been after investigations into Perez impeding Nico Hulkenberg at Melbourne and Zhou Guanyu impeding Max Verstappen at Spa.
How Perez and Hamilton reacted
Perez was initially furious with Hamilton, referring to Hamilton as an 'idiot' over team radio - but he had cooled by the time he reached the media post-qualifying.
"That [incident] was unfortunate, I think it was just wrong time, wrong moment," Perez said after qualifying fifth.
"Lewis was on the racing line. There was nothing I could do. Other than fitting a new set [of softs for another run in Q1], which was very costly then in Q3."
Perez said Hamilton "did the best he could" but deserved to be penalised - as he himself has been sanctioned by the "very strict" stewards for what Perez felt were less severe incidents earlier in the year.
Speaking to the media after qualifying, Hamilton said he "did absolutely do my best to try and be as far out of the way as possible. It just didn’t work".
'Nightmare to drive'
What pained Hamilton more than the Perez incident was the drop-off in confidence with the W15 versus Friday.
Having made it comfortably through Q1, Hamilton slumped to 12th in Q2, almost four tenths slower than team-mate George Russell.
He called it a "difficult" session and pointed to Friday night set-up changes that disrupted the W15's balance.
"I think we made changes overnight and then couldn’t see [if they worked] in FP3 [effectively neutered by a big Logan Sargeant crash]. It was the same for everybody," Hamilton said after qualifying.
"We changed the car quite a bit and it was a nightmare to drive.
"Car was massively snappy today. Yesterday was lots of understeer.
"We tried to dial that out and put it too much the other way."
