Lewis Hamilton rues Ferrari decision as 'wrong call' leads to latest F1 penalty

Lewis Hamilton has rued Ferrari's decision to pit under the Hungarian GP virtual safety car, which led to his third penalty in as many races.

Running second after Oscar Piastri's McLaren gearbox failed, Ferrari elected to pit Hamilton under the virtual safety car, dropping him to fourth behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, with the Mercedes getting ahead after Hamilton ceded position after a race to the pit-exit. 

However, Hamilton was then pinged for speeding in the pit-lane by 0.1kph, and handed a five-second time penalty, which ultimately dropped him to fifth as team-mate Charles Leclerc finished ahead by 0.7s. 

It is Hamilton's third five-second time penalty in as many races after a false start at the British GP, and then for colliding with George Russell on the opening lap in Belgium. 

He also incurred a three-place grid drop from second to fifth in Budapest for impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying. 

Reflecting, Hamilton felt in "hindsight", the decision to pit was the wrong call, and "opened the door" to the penalty.

"I definitely don't think we should have taken the stop; the call came literally just before the pit lane entry, and I didn't have time to debate," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. 

"We've got to trust that there's a decision that's been taken, but in hindsight, my tyres were totally fine, and I was probably going to lose out to Max, but I think I could have kept third at least.

"It just opened the door to the penalty I got at the end. 

"I think the last three races for me have not been great. Lots of mistakes, a mistake in Silverstone that cost dearly, and then obviously in the last race as well. 

"So a lot of penalties in the last three races, so I've got to go to work hard to not give them the opportunity to give me any more penalties."