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[McLaren Fan]

From F1 Live:

A decision of the stewards following the Belgian Grand Prix saw 25 seconds added to Lewis Hamilton's overall race time, the result of which saw him drop down from victory to third place. The win therefore went to second-placed Ferrari driver Felipe Massa.

The stewards considered that Hamilton had not properly allowed Kimi Raikkonen to regain his position after the McLaren driver temporarily overtook Raikkonen's Ferrari while taking avoiding action at the Bus Stop chicane.

McLaren had soon informed the FIA that it would appeal the decision, and has now confirmed the procedure with the following statement:

Martin Whitmarsh said:
"Following our decision to register our intention to appeal the penalty handed out to Lewis Hamilton by the FIA Stewards at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, we hereby confirm that we have now lodged notice of appeal. Lewis describes the incident as follows."

Lewis Hamilton said:
"In the closing stages of the race I was catching Kimi consistently, lap by lap, and with three laps remaining I got close enough to attempt to overtake him on the entry to the last chicane. I managed to get slightly ahead of him in the braking area for the first apex of the chicane. He fought back approaching the second apex - but, in doing so, he left no room for me on the inside line. The only way for me to avoid a collision was therefore to cut inside the second apex."

"I came out of the second apex in front of Kimi and so I momentarily lifted-off on the straight, to ensure that Kimi got back in front. The team also came on the radio and instructed me to allow Kimi to repass, which I had already done. As a result, Kimi crossed the start/finish line ahead of me and 6.7km/h quicker than me."

"After allowing Kimi to completely repass, I crossed from the left side of the track to the right side of the track, passing behind Kimi in the process. I then attacked Kimi on the inside of the first corner, and successfully outbraked him."

Martin Whitmarsh added:
"From the pit wall, we then asked Race Control to confirm that they were comfortable that Lewis had allowed Kimi to repass, and they confirmed twice that they believed that the position had been given back in a manner that was 'okay'."

"If Race Control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis's actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to repass for a second time."

Statement ends

D.B. © CAPSIS International

Thankfully the team have decided to go ahead with the appeal. I was getting worried about them not doing it. For me, this is more than just about McLaren, but about motorsport as a whole.

[bud]

the race control part is the clincher infact i do not understand why the three stoogwards ignored this info post race

[przemo]

Race Control means Charlie Whiting not the stewards, am I right? If so, how come he said he was happy with Lewis giving back his position to Kimi and then started the investigation anyway? And why McLaren were asking him and not the stewards in the first place, he's not the one who decides on the penalties.

[onelapdown]

Well here's something I don't understand - Charlie Whiting is the race director, and he is supposed to have twice said to McLaren that they were "OK". The stewards in their decision start with "having received a report from the race director", which can only mean Whiting. I'm not saying he told them to investigate, he could simply have said "Hamilton left the track and rejoined", and left it for them to judge, but if he said to McLaren they were "OK", did he also pass on that opinion to the stewards?

[przemo]

Does his opinion matter anyway, does he have the right to rule? If he said "OK" that I think by that he assured McLaren there will be no penalty, but the stewards thought otherwise. So, why do the teams even ask him if his voice doesn't count?

[exf1fan]

Problem here Lad’s is that Charlie Whiting is a political slime bag and is the very bestest of matey chumleys with your old friend Mr pervert himself; our old foe and practising Nazi prostitute spanking TURD Mr Max Mosley.
Don’t hold your breath for a result.

[IceManpjn]

Lewis Hamilton said:
"In the closing stages of the race I was catching Kimi consistently, lap by lap, and with three laps remaining I got close enough to attempt to overtake him on the entry to the last chicane. I managed to get slightly ahead of him in the braking area for the first apex of the chicane. He fought back approaching the second apex - but, in doing so, he left no room for me on the inside line. The only way for me to avoid a collision was therefore to cut inside the second apex."

This here is exactly what I've been saying to folks since Sunday. It didn't look to me like a deliberate move from Hamilton but rather a preferable alternative to just smashing into Kimi, which would likely have taken both out of the race completely. He had nowhere to go but either into Kimi's car or cutting through the chicane.

[McLaren Fan]

Lewis Hamilton said:
"In the closing stages of the race I was catching Kimi consistently, lap by lap, and with three laps remaining I got close enough to attempt to overtake him on the entry to the last chicane. I managed to get slightly ahead of him in the braking area for the first apex of the chicane. He fought back approaching the second apex - but, in doing so, he left no room for me on the inside line. The only way for me to avoid a collision was therefore to cut inside the second apex."

This here is exactly what I've been saying to folks since Sunday. It didn't look to me like a deliberate move from Hamilton but rather a preferable alternative to just smashing into Kimi, which would likely have taken both out of the race completely. He had nowhere to go but either into Kimi's car or cutting through the chicane.

And if he were to have smashed into Raikkonen, he would have been penalised for causing an avoidable collision - the same penalty Kovalainen (rightly) got.

[Mikep99]

I get the feeling that this appeal might be successfull.

Hopefully it is so there will not be another cloud over the outcome of the 2008 season similar to that of 2007.

[McLaren Fan]

I get the feeling that this appeal might be successfull.

Hopefully it is so there will not be another cloud over the outcome of the 2008 season similar to that of 2007.

I hope that either the appeal comes to the right conclusion or that both titles are won fairly clearly so there are no question marks surrounding the results of yet another season. Formula One owes it to its fans, sponsors, drivers, teams and potential fans to get the sport cleaned up.

[texasmr2]

I get the feeling that this appeal might be successfull.

Hopefully it is so there will not be another cloud over the outcome of the 2008 season similar to that of 2007.

I could not have said it better Roc.

[przemo]

I may be answering my own question here, but here's an additional quote from Ron Dennis:

“Inevitably, we wanted to know whether that was deemed to be a correction so we checked with Charlie," Dennis told Ted Kravitz.

"Of course Charlie can only give an opinion because he's not the stewards, but he gave the opinion that we had complied properly to the regulations.”
linky

So basically they asked Charlie, because they wanted an outside opinion on whether Hamilton had abided by the rules, so they could rest assured that he had. However his opinion doesn't really matter - it is the stewards that make the call.

[McLaren Fan]

Can you actually get in touch with the stewards? In any case, race control is your first port of call for these types of inquiries. Take last season when Ferrari very sneakily changed their tyres in the Japanese Grand Prix. Whiting got onto the team and ordered them to change them back again otherwise a penalty would be given (and they're lucky it wasn't given there and then). That's why I can't understand the difference in opinion between the two and why Whiting's opinion doesn't count when it has done before.

[bud]

I may be answering my own question here, but here's an additional quote from Ron Dennis:

“Inevitably, we wanted to know whether that was deemed to be a correction so we checked with Charlie," Dennis told Ted Kravitz.

"Of course Charlie can only give an opinion because he's not the stewards, but he gave the opinion that we had complied properly to the regulations.”
linky

So basically they asked Charlie, because they wanted an outside opinion on whether Hamilton had abided by the rules, so they could rest assured that he had. However his opinion doesn't really matter - it is the stewards that make the call.

He is the race director usually his opinion is enough and as far as i know teams cannot contact the stewards directly

[darwin dali]

So, in other words, McLaren themselves were doubtful whether or not LH's driving was kosher and so they asked CW in an attempt to cover their arses. Well, it backfired - let's see what the appeal results in...