Hamilton pays heavy penalty

TWO hours after jubilantly believing he had won his fifth race this year at the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton saw his victory overturned and replaced with a retrospective third-placed finish.

Hamilton had left the track thinking he had taken maximum points and stretched his lead in the drivers’ championship to eight points before the race stewards intervened.

The trio of Nicholas Deschaux, Surinder Thatti and Yves Bacquelaine imposed a retrospective 25-second drive-through penalty against the McLaren star.

The end result saw 23-year-old’s lead slashed to just two point and handed Felipe Massa his fifth triumph of the season.

McLaren have registered their intent to appeal, although the rules state they will be unable to officially go ahead with a protest.

It is now one for the FIA Court of Appeal to determine if McLaren have grounds to pursue their complaint, otherwise it will simply be withdrawn.

The incident that led to the penalty arrived at the end of lap 42 as the rain Hamilton had been praying for inside the cockpit of his car duly arrived.

It allowed Formula One’s wet-weather king to reel in leader Kimi Raikkonen, and on approach to the Bus Stop Chicane, he had the Finn in his sights.

Darting around the outside, both drivers locked up their brakes on entry, with Hamilton taking evasive action by using a run-off area to his left.

Returning to the track in the lead, the 23-year-old knew he had to yield his position, otherwise he would have been duly penalised.

The young Briton did so, with Raikkonen crossing the start-finish line narrowly ahead, before Hamilton promptly filed in behind.

Taking up the slipstream, he then proceeded to vault past reigning world champion Raikkonen on entry to the La Source hairpin.

The stewards, however, deemed Hamilton had cut the chicane and so gained an advantage.

Initially, that was the case, but the fact he gave up the lead to Raikkonen — as the regulations also deem must happen – suggest he played fair.

The three stewards did not think so and the celebratory champagne inside the McLaren brand centre went very flat, very quickly.

In the French Grand Prix in June Hamilton did cut a corner and gained an advantage, and was handed a drive-through penalty.

No wonder the smiles turned into long faces inside McLaren, and ultimately a statement issued on behalf of the team.

A McLaren spokesman said: “We looked at all our data, and also made it available to the FIA stewards. It showed that, having lifted, Lewis was six kilometres per hour slower than Kimi as they crossed the start-finish line. Having passed the lead back to Kimi, Lewis repositioned his car, moving across and behind Kimi to the right-hand line, and then outbraked him into the hairpin.

“Based on this data, we have no option other than to register our intention to appeal.’’

Despite his joy at the win, describing his fight with Raikkonen as “one of the most exciting for a long time,” Hamilton perhaps had an inkling as to what might transpire.

Asked prior to the penalty whether he would be surprised if the stewards did punish him, Hamilton replied: “Absolutely, absolutely.

“This is motor racing and if there’s a penalty, then there’s something wrong because 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, so I think it would be absolutely wrong.”

Somewhat pertinently, he added: “But you know what they (stewards) are like.”

Not for the first time this season Hamilton has incurred the wrath of the stewards, initially in Bahrain when he and teammate Heikki Kovalainen were handed five-place grid penalties for impeding other drivers in qualifying. Hamilton was then demoted 10 places for the French Grand Prix after driving into the back of Raikkonen in the pit lane in the previous race in Canada.

Add in the drive-through penalty in Magny-Cours and it has been a miserable year in one respect for Hamilton.

And so we move on to Italy, Ferrari’s home ground, with Raikkonen just about in the title race as he is now 19 points adrift in the wake of sliding into a wall on lap 43 due to the wet conditions.

Fernando Alonso was fourth in his Renault, followed by Sebastian Vettel for Toro Rosso, BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Sebastien Bourdais in his Toro Rosso.

Toyota’s Timo Glock did finish eighth, but was handed a 25-second penalty for overtaking under waved yellow flags, allowing Red Bull’s Mark Webber to claim the final point.