Formula 1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya has argued that the FIA stewards were completely justified in penalising Lewis Hamilton for his opening-lap collision with George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell, who started from third at Spa-Francorchamps, suffered a sudden loss of electrical deployment off the line. As he was swamped by the pack, he was caught up in a collision with Hamilton’s Ferrari.
Hamilton suffered a snap of understeer and made contact with the Mercedes, sending Russell into the gravel and out of the race. The stewards subsequently handed the seven-time champion a five-second penalty for “causing a collision”.
While many, including Russell, labelled the clash as a first-lap racing incident, Montoya argued that the fact it was the opening lap does not excuse a driver’s failure to maintain their line.
“George was under control ahead of Lewis through the corner and gave Lewis enough room, and Lewis could not hold his line,” Montoya explained during the F1 TV post-race show. “The reality of it is Lewis understeered into him. Was it on purpose? No, not at all.
“But it still caused the incident, and that’s why I think George calls it a racing incident because it can happen on the first lap. I understand the way you see it, but the problem is the way the rules are written. That’s a penalty.”
George Russell, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: John Thys / AFP via Getty Images
Alex Brundle, who joined Montoya on the broadcast, partially agreed. “I think with George coming from behind, on any other lap, that is a penalisable incident,” he said.
“On the first lap with everyone on cold tyres, we’re going to differ across the panel here.”
The retirement was a blow to Russell’s 2026 title campaign, dropping him 50 points behind his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli. It was also Russell’s second retirement of the season through no fault of his own.
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