F1 driver was handed extremely rare race ban over Belgian GP incident involving Lewis Hamilton

An F1 driver was handed an extremely rare punishment following a dramatic incident at the Belgian Grand Prix which involved Lewis Hamilton.

Back in 2012, Romain Grosjean while racing for Lotus moved towards McLaren's Hamilton on the first corner, forcing the Brit onto the grass.

The two collided, triggering a huge crash involving Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez.

Only Kobayashi managed to finish the race, eventually finishing in a lowly 13th, despite starting on the front row.

The stewards deemed Grosjean responsible for the causing the crash and gave him a one-race ban, which meant he missed the Italian GP.

A statement read: "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others.

"It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race."

F1 crash at Spa (Image: Mark Thompson / Staff via Getty)

Lotus and Grosjean did not appeal the verdict.

Their statement said: "The stewards note the team conceded the action of the driver was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement.

"Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty."

Has anyone been banned from F1 races since?

Yes, but only once.

At the start of the 2014 F1 season, the FIA introduced a penalty points system.

Under the system, if drivers picked up 12 points on their super license within a 12-month period, they would automatically receive a one-race ban.

The number of points awarded would be determined by the nature of the incident.

These include causing crashes, driving too slowly in the pit lane and overtaking under red flags.

Once a ban is served, then the penalty points reset to zero.

The first and only driver to be banned under this system is Kevin Magnussen, who in 2024, while driving for Haas, was banned for the Azerbaijan GP.

After colliding with Alpine's Pierre Gasly at the Italian GP, he received two penalty points bringing his total to 12 and ruling him out of the following race.

Max Verstappen and George Russell (Image: NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty)

Did Max Verstappen nearly get banned?

The four-time world champion came close to receiving a race ban earlier this year.

After he crashed into the Mercedes of George Russell at the Spanish GP in June, the Dutchman received three penalty points, bringing his total to 11.

This meant if he received any points at either the Canadian or Austrian GPs, then he would be hit with a ban.

Although he got through those races unscathed, the world champion still needs to avoid receiving three or more points before October 27.