Eurosport - Tue, 09 Sep 15:55:00 2008
McLaren have said they intend to appeal against a stewards' decision that stripped their Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton of victory in the Belgian Grand Prix.
"We have no option other than to register our intention to appeal," said a team spokesman.
It was not clear whether any appeal would be allowed under the sport's rules, however.
Stewards decided Hamilton had cut the chicane and gained an advantage while battling Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen for the lead.
They imposed a retrospective drive-through penalty, applied at the end of the race in the form of 25 seconds added to his race time.
That demoted Hamilton to third place and cut his championship lead over Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa, the race winner, to two points.
Meanwhile, Hamilton denied that he had gained any advantage
Speaking before stewards stripped the Formula One championship leader of his fifth win of the season and demoted him to third place, the 23-year-old Briton was adamant he had done nothing wrong.
"This is motor racing and if there is a penalty, then there's something wrong," Hamilton said.
"I was ahead going into that corner, so I didn't gain an advantage from it. We were still able to race at the next corner and I gave him his spot back and I think it was fair and square.
"But you know what they (the stewards) are like, so we will see."
Hamilton could speak from experience, having been punished four times already by the stewards in 12 previous races this season.
In Malaysia in March, both he and Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen were demoted five places on the starting grid for impeding rivals after slowing to save fuel on completing their final qualifying laps.
In Canada in June, Hamilton had only himself to blame when he ploughed into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari while the champion waited at a red light in the pit lane.
That blunder cost the Briton 10 places on the starting grid for the subsequent French Grand Prix as well as his championship lead.
At Magny-Cours, Hamilton then added to his existing sanction by collecting a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner while overtaking.
At the same time, Kovalainen was given a five place penalty on the starting grid for impeding Mark Webber's Red Bull in qualifying.
In Valencia last month, at the European Grand Prix, Hamilton was fined 5,000 euros for turning up late to the official Thursday FIA news conference.
Massa was, meanwhile, fined 10,000 euros for an incident that almost caused a collision in the pit lane in that same Spanish race.
Comment 498 - 517 of 517
LMAO dogbiscuit2001!
Woof Woof!!
vinnydawg67:
The rule actually states that:
If you are not in a Red Car you must give up every corner, and have no competitive advantage for the next TWO races. It's quite simple really.
;~)))
The folowing was posted on a related article.
The rules state; if you cut a chicane, you must give up that corner, and have no competitive advantage for the next TWO corners.
I've been searching for quite some time now through the FIA International Sporting codes and Appedices and have seen nothing even close to this.
Where is this rule, if it exists?
Gareth...Yes it was flippant, though I am not in fact a Massa fan, nor a LH fan, I believe that LH did the better job when it counted and duly won the race, the decision from the stewards to punish LH for an infringement took hour or so to manifest itself, LH made his decision in a fraction of a second under great pressure, really one can only intentionally gain from getting better line (KR had the more slippery line after the chicane incident) if time is spent making it happen...in my opinion LH did not have time to work out track advantage...he did slow allowing KR to pass again but got better drive from there and passed into turn one, bearing the McLaren is better under breaking in the wet than the Ferrari, maybe he should have waited a little longer but it IS a RACE.
According to Charlie Whiting (FIA Race Director among other things) LH had been seen to hand back the place and it was OK...However the Stewards of the Circuit who are the voice of the Circuit not the voice of the FIA came to a different conclusion.
So everyone climbing on the back on the FIA for being bias is really pointless.
Personally I would have preferred KR to have won the race and then on to win the Championship...Because I feel he would then retire (I cannot see that his heart is still in it...if it ever was!) and leave the seat open...that would be interesting... Kubica, Alonso, Vettel?.
Mass will probably win the championship, its the rest of the world that know that he's not the best driver, what more can be said!!
Lo, that was the point, I am only messing, stop being a bore
Got to say guys like TOFFEE4EVA( yeh I know you are a lady) talking complete @#$% like Lewis the only Brit in F1 when Button and DC still race does make you wonder just how much they know!
My apologies to all Millwall supporters. I'm sure you wouldn't let someone as blinkered as Pondlife support your team.
you only get a tow from a slipstrean at equall high speed just face it kimi was way slower though the last sector so lewis would have had an advantage anyway. get of lewis back. remeber those great battles with senna mansell and prost were they dangerous [suzuka] no it was racing the best man always won so shut up you ferrari @$£"s
bang on the money rick m
Pond.simba please change your name to pond.life. You can't be in someone's slipstream under those conditions because the angles and the speeds in the rain don't generate them. Also the closer you get to another car i.e the distance between Kimi and Lewis at that point, completely destroys the aerodynamics of Lewis car so Lewis was at a complete disadvantage. You have achieved nothing in life and know nothing about racing cars so don't go judging Lewis.If Stirling Moss says Lewis is the best young driver he has ever seen then that is praise enough.
( have you ever heard of Stirling Moss?). Go and support Superleague preferably when sponsored by Millwall because that is the level of your intelligence..
I am sick to death of all these stupid negative comments about Lewis, at the end of the day he won the race, and only a fool would try and deny that. There are forces against McLaren for some unknown reason, and it is ruining F1.
Kimi & Massa are @#$% in the race, Kimi in the wall, then look at Massa at Silverstone.
IAlso how come Kimi didnt get penalty in Monaco for ruining Sutil's race by again being @#$% in the rain under braking????
V. Lashley
I could not have put it any better a.monsteiro, if Ferrari can't take any competion they should get out of F1, and to all Whinging Ferrari fans the world Champ won't be in a Red car. now I wait for abuse which will be like water off a ducks back.
so at what point after the chicane was lewis in kimi's slip stream then???
he was clearly in the slipstream everyone could see it apart from all you warped lewis fans.
and dave p your wrong, just wrong pretty much all what u said is a load of nonsence you sound like james allen where he says "schumacher like" and "senna esque" its a load of rubbish lewis hamilton hasent won anything yet to be remotly compared to those actual great drivers.
seriously pond.simba i think you need to look at the replays again how is lewis getting the effect of a slip stream when the only time kimi is directly infront of lewis is when he is changing to the other side of the track at which point lewis goes up the inside
hamilton is an absolute @#$% anyway so who cares??
lewis did overtake him because he was in the slipstream u know that rick please dont lie, think we can all agree that lewis was in the slipstream.
Lewis didn't overtake Kimi because he was in his slipstream but because Lewis is the dog's @#$% in the rain and Kimi isn't. Which is why kimi still threw it into the wall after lewis was long gone.
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