Hamilton faces podium loss as stewards summon him over yellow flag breach at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton’s third-place finish at the 2025 British Grand Prix is under threat after stewards summoned the Ferrari driver to explain a potential yellow flag infringement at Silverstone, with any additional time penalty enough to strip him of the podium entirely.

The FIA summons document does not specify the exact moment of the alleged breach, though race control logged the incident at 4:03:34 BST — shortly after Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg stopped on the approach to the National Pit Straight. At that point Hamilton was locked in a battle with Max Verstappen, having overtaken the Dutchman just moments earlier on lap 38.

Hamilton was required to appear before the stewards at 5:00pm BST, immediately after the podium ceremony. The panel this weekend comprises Gerd Ennser, Tanja Geilhausen, Mathieu Remmerie, Pedro Lamy and Richard Norbury.

The yellow-flag hearing came on top of an already difficult afternoon for Hamilton. He had earlier received a five-second time penalty for moving before the start lights went out, a breach the stewards described in precise terms: on-board footage showed the yellow Pirelli lettering on Car 44’s tyre rotating upwards and forwards after the third red light was illuminated but before the start signal was given. Ferrari chose not to tell Hamilton about the penalty before his first pit stop, which consequently ran to 8.8 seconds, though the seven-time world champion admitted afterwards he had already sensed he had moved too early.

The consequences of the yellow-flag summons are potentially far more severe. Because the race finished under the safety car, finishing positions were frozen with gaps compressed — meaning even a standard five-second penalty would be enough to plunge Hamilton from third all the way down to 14th, costing him all podium points.