Lewis Hamilton 'torrid weekend' results in unusual 'relief'

Martin Brundle has stated Lewis Hamilton endured a “torrid weekend” at the Belgian Grand Prix after being involved in various incidents.

Hamilton endured a difficult qualifying outing and ended the session in sixth, behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Things went even further south in the race as he made contact with George Russell on the opening lap of the race, resulting in a five-second time penalty.

While serving the penalty during his pit stop, Hamilton hit one of his mechanics, who thankfully escaped uninjured, but the incident resulted in a hefty fine for Ferrari.

Having ended the race in fourth place, Brundle theorised that Hamiilton will have been relieved to score strong points, having been caught up in multiple setbacks.

“Hamilton had a torrid weekend with an accident in practice, the five-second penalty with Russell, and nearly running one of his mechanics over in the pit stop through no fault of his own,” Brundle wrote in his column for Sky F1.

“That incident attracted a team fine rather than a race penalty and so Lewis was perhaps relieved to finish fourth, probably for the first time in his life.”

During his race commentary on Sunday, Brundle flagged Hamilton's clash with Russell as a racing incident, however, the stewards took a different opinion.

The Briton's opinion appeared unchanged, but suggested the call may have cost Hamilton a spot on the podium.

“Ferrari called it a racing incident, I guess you could say they would, and most people I know agreed,” he said.

“But with whatever extra information the stewards had they applied a five-second penalty mitigated down from the standard 10 seconds. It perhaps cost Lewis a podium but that's speculative.”