Lewis Hamilton handed severe F1 penalty for Monaco GP after Max Verstappen incident

 Lewis Hamilton has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion qualified originally in P4 for Sunday's race, but following the penalty, he will start in P7.

Hamilton was adjudged to have impeded Max Verstappen in Q1 at turn three with the Ferrari driver on a slow lap and the Red Bull on a flying lap. However, Verstappen had to back out of his attempt after overtaking Hamilton.

Following a miscommunication through the team radio, Hamilton failed to move off the racing line as Verstappen approached the corner. Forcing the Dutchman to get out of the throttle and fight a snap from the steering wheel as he aborted the lap.

Hamilton's penalty means that Verstappen has been promoted to fourth, while Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso also move up a place.

During the incident, both drivers swore at their team radios as they expressed their shock at the near-collision. Hamilton was furious with his race engineer Riccardo Adami following a miscommunication.

Verstappen vented his anger over the team radio to his Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, slamming at the seven-time world champion. "F*** whoa! Mate! F*** Lewis."

Hamilton was also frustrated at the incident after Adami initially warned that Verstappen was just three seconds behind. However, he then followed up with a contradicting message claiming that the Red Bull had slowed down just moments before he overtook on the outside.

Speaking after qualifying, Verstappen acknowledged that Ferrari had let Hamilton down. "But then I saw immediately that the team [Ferrari] told [Lewis Hamilton] that I was driving slow, while I was clearly driving fast," Verstappen said.

"So it's not Lewis' fault. I mean, I quickly chatted to Lewis already about it." "Yeah, it's very simple, but of course it can't happen, but that's the team's mistake."

Hamilton's Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc starts second at his home Grand Prix. Last year's winner starts behind Lando Norris on pole, with Championship leader Oscar Piastri in P3.