I am completely outraged by the stewards decision to hand Lewis Hamilton a 25-second time penalty for “cutting” the Bus-Stop chicane during the final laps of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps.
Both Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton were investigated by the race stewards for seperate incidents, but I felt neither driver deserved a penalty. For a start, Hamilton was forced to cut the chicane to avoid a collision with Raikkonen’s Ferrari.
Secondly, on the approach to the start/finish line, immediately after the incident in question, Lewis was told to back off and let Raikkonen passed, which he did. Lewis allowed Raikkonen to take the lead before making a completely seperate move up the inside of La Source. Clearly the stewards felt Hamilton didn’t fall back enough to negate the advantage he supposedly got from cutting the chicane.
But the problem I have is that the speed traps on the start/finish straight showed that Hamilton was travelling six kilometres per hour slower than Raikkonen, which means he got no unfair advantage over the reigning world champion by of cutting the chicane.
Also, after the race, Felippe Massa complained of having no grip in the wet weather conditions whatsoever, forcing him to crawl around the circuit at a snail’s pace. We have seen the Ferrari’s struggle in these circumstances on many occasions in the past and it’s a fact that the McLaren is able to retain tyre temperature more effectively in the rain than their rival, therefore, wasn’t it inevitable that Hamilton would take the lead from the Finn by either braking later into a corner or accelerating out of corners?
Lastly, I am bemused as to how the stewards feel they can justify handing out a penalty for this incident, when Massa and Ferrari got away with a 10,000 Euro fine for an unsafe release from the pits, especially when Bruno Senna in GP2 was given a drive-through penalty for the exact same offence during the Sprint race at Spa? I think the people making the decisions in Formula One should review their system for making such calls, because they are clearly inconsistent.
Am I wrong?
