Lewis Hamilton's Belgian GP win was short-lived
Lewis Hamilton won yesterday’s Belgian Grand Prix – but two hours after the race, the stewards took his victory away under controversial circumstances.
The penalty hinged on Hamilton’s attempt to pass Kimi Raikkonen on lap 42. Raikkonen forced Hamilton off the track, meaning Hamilton had to let Raikkonen pass. He did this, but then re-passed Raikkonen at the next corner.
Hamilton penalty meant Felipe Massa inherited the win – Raikkonen crashed out on the penultimate lap. Should Massa have won?
The McLaren team has announed it will appeal the decision against Hamilton. F1′s governing body, the FIA, will hear the appeal at a hearing of the World Motor Sports’ Council, a date for which has not yet been set.
McLaren have had several run-ins with the sports governing body in the last 12 months. Before last year’s Belgian Grand Prix they were famously excluded from the constructors’ championship and fined $100m for alleging using confidential information belonging to Ferrari.
By appealing against Hamilton’s penalty they may risk getting an even stronger punishment.
Do you think Hamilton’s penalty should be overturned? Have your say in the comments below.
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Yes of course Hamilton’s penalty should be overturned, it is the mosr ridiculous thing I have ever seen in F1. We all know that Bernie wants Ferrari to win but this is the worst case of bias yet. Why doesn’t he go the whole way and use his money and clout to change the rules to give Ferrari and its drivers a 40-point headstart at the start of the season and see if everyone can catch up??
that’s the key…. ‘Raikkonen forced Hamilton off the track’ What else needs to be said?
of course lewis should be reinstated. this is yet another instance of the F1 rulers cow towing to a ferrari team who will win by fair means or foul. was hoping to see the end of their underhand ways when shumacher retired.
i think it,s apauling that hamilton got stripped of a win if they thought he had done wrong then why not a grid penalty at next race!!! any way he did nothing wrong and everyone on the day believed so. It was the best race in F1 for a long time, there’s too much politics in F1 now, no wonder the sport has lost so much support lots of suits with too much money think they can rule it. hamilton is the best thing in a long time to join F1 and the idiots at the top can’t stand it, they have something against him its not the first time this season they have tried to stop his championship battle. they wouldn’t know what real racing is if it bit them in the back side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Hamilton didnt gain any advantage why was he penalised? As it was clearly the Ferrari driver that forced Hamilton off, shouldn’t he be punished?
Obvioulsy not as F1 is just one big F1X in Ferrari’s favour
totally ridiculous decision, he shouldnt have been penalised for this as he won the race fair and square. decisions like this damage the sport and spoil what was a superb race.
Its outrageous for Lewis to have the win taken away. Lewis was making an overtaking move on Kimi and Kimi pushed Lewis off line so he had choice but to go off the track to avoid a collision.
The advantage was given back to Kimi as they passed the start / finish line and Lewis made another move at the next corner. I watched the race and don’t see how the officials can say Lewis gained an advantage. It all look fair to me.
At the last Grand Prix Massa was released by his pit crew into the path of another car. This was considered to be a ‘dangerous move’ but no fine and penalty was passed to Massa. Perhaps Lewis should paint his car red as the officials turn a blind eye if your car is scarlet !
Right at the end it turned into quite a race and I must say the result should have stood.
F1 officials have devalued that race from a great race to a farce.
I for one will not be turning into ITV to watch any more races this season. Whats the point in watch, this is not racing but some kind of man hunt against anything Maclarn. Hekki out broke himself in a corner and hit another car as one may do if you are racing as a few drivers did at the first corner of the first lap but none of them got a drive through penalty.
Whats the point F1 officials might as well just hand the title to ferrari and fine Maclarn another £50,000,000 again just for the fun of it.
well what a joke , clearly the stewards have got it wrong. lewis was alongside kimi at the last corner, kimi turned in and they hit each other, lewis was then in front , he was then radio by mclaren team and decided he MAY have gained an advantage , he backed off to allow kimi back past him , his data shows he lifted to half throttle for a short while and his speed was 6kms slower than kimi at the start line , having let kimi back past he then threw him a dummy into the hairpin, and re passed. the FIA have a problem with mclaren and favour ferrari in all matters , this decision is just to keep the scores closer for the last 5 races its a joke !!!
Looking at the incedent from a totally neutral propective I can understand how a penalty should have been imposed had Hamilton not yielded the advantage. In lieu of the fact that he did and had the initial incident not taken place Hamilton would have overtaken where he did anyway, it does seem to suggest ‘other factors’ are a play here. Not good for the sport