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?
5 responses so far ↓
twolittleducks // September 8, 2008 at 8:05 pm |
Yes, completely agree – it was totally outrageous wasn’t it. They must want all the drivers to just parade around the track, at least that’s what they’re encouraging by doing this. I’m still fuming even having had a day to calm down about it!
Justin // September 10, 2008 at 5:14 am |
Definitely ridiculous. I’m a fan of F1 even though I’m relatively new to the sport, but certain things the FIA do really cause you to scratch your head. One thing I heard during the American Broadcast of the race was that Kimi had been fined twice for 5,000 Euros for speeding on pit lane. In American racing if you speed on pit lane you get to come back through and try to get it right the next time. I would feel that in F1 where it is so hard to pass, especially between Hamilton and the Ferraris 2 or 3 seconds gained by speeding in the pits to win the race is well worth 5,000 Euros.
Apparently Hamilton finished 3rd…. « Not PC. // September 10, 2008 at 5:33 am |
[...] response to another bloggers commentary on the subject (found here) I stated: Definitely ridiculous. I’m a fan of F1 even though I’m relatively new to the sport, [...]
neilosjay // September 10, 2008 at 11:17 am |
im a ferrari fan an i think there is more ferrari influence in decisions made. eg. think back to monaco when raikkonen lost control out of the tunnel. if that was the other way round, im sure the stewards would be quick to slap a penalty to the driver (vettel was it?) stupid stewards. there cant be a rival sport soon enough
hotfixuk // September 10, 2008 at 3:49 pm |
there seems to be one rule for Ferrari and one for everyone else.
Hamilton won that race fair and square. Kimi even spun out at the end, so either way Lewis would of won…
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