Lewis Hamilton calls for investigation after Monaco punishment: 'I was shocked'

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he was "shocked" to learn he had received a five-second time penalty during the Monaco Grand Prix for speeding in the pit lane, calling for an investigation into why so many drivers were penalised.

The seven-time world champion was one of several drivers, including George Russell and Oscar Piastri, to be punished for speeding in the pit lane at the Circuit de Monaco.

When Hamilton entered the pit lane for his first pit stop, he was judged to have exceeded the speed limit by 0.1 km/h, resulting in an almost immediate penalty.

Thankfully for Hamilton, he served the punishment at his second pit stop and did not lose a position, allowing him to go on and secure back-to-back second-place finishes.

The result has moved the 41-year-old into second in the drivers' championship, although he remains 66 points adrift of race winner Kimi Antonelli.

Despite his relief that the penalty did not impact his race, Hamilton was adamant that he had not sped in the pit lane and believes there was a flaw in the technology used to measure how drivers enter the pit lane.

Asked for his thoughts on his five-second time penalty, Hamilton replied: "Yeah, I wasn’t speeding. I think it’s just the way the pit lane is. I’ve done this pit lane for years. 

"It’s not like I came in and didn’t press the button or something like that. Pit lane limiter is on immediately. And I think it’s just the line that you take, which is the same line we’ve all taken for years, where you come in, you kind of cut part of the white line. 

"Head down, went out. And I was shocked to hear that I was speeding because I wasn’t actually above the speed. "It’s all about, I think, the distance and something that we really need to look into because I heard lots of people got that and they probably weren’t really speeding. 

"And having to do a stop-and-go, sort of stop and wait for five, 10 seconds, whatever people got, it destroys you on a track so short as well, your chances. So I’m thankful that it didn’t impede me too much."

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