Lewis Hamilton got off lightly with a 10-second penalty at the Russian Grand Prix because his practice starts were “dangerous”.

That’s according to ex-F1 racer and now pundit Marc Surer, who asked: “Why does he think he is the only driver who can [practice] start at a different location?”

Hamilton finished third at Sochi behind his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen after incurring two separate five-second penalties, both of which he served at the same pit-stop, for practising starts in the wrong place.

The World Champion started the race from pole position and was in the lead when he made his only pit-stop, whereafter he never looked like finishing higher than P3.