I too think this was a harsh decision & is no good for the sport in general.
But there have been some points brought up which highlight "to me anyway" that this incident is not so cut and dry as some would say.
But saying that I do think Hammy should get the benefit of any double there may be & should have one.
Hamilton right to be penalised
http://sport.setanta.com/en/Blogs/A-to-Z-of-Bloggers/Dave-Maher/03/09/Hamilton-right-to-be-penalised/
I may regret saying this, but perhaps it was fair for Lewis Hamilton to be punished following his duel with Kimi Raikkonen close to the end of the Belgian Grand Prix.
I say perhaps because, to be frank, I have been mulling it over and it is such a difficult one to call – tough to come to a definitive opinion.
One thing is for sure, I believe, and that is that Hamilton used illegal means to overtake Raikkonen late on in the race at La Source. He exploited the momentum he had gained from cutting the Bus Stop chicane to pass at the famous hairpin.
Let me explain how I have reached that conclusion, despite McLaren’s insistence that Hamilton dropped six kilometres per hour off his pace in order to let the Ferrari man back past on the main straight.
Hamilton made an attempt to pass Raikkonen at the chicane, and his rival held the inside line. Hamilton had nowhere else to go and thus took a route across the chicane. He then held the lead briefly before giving it back immediately. All of that is fair enough.
However, I see what happened next in the following way. How could Hamilton have rightfully had the pace to overtake at the very next corner? Apart from the rarest of circumstances, it is not possible to overtake a competitor a few hundred metres after failing to correctly take - albeit through a perfectly acceptable racing incident - the previous corner.
Of course, you could argue that it was possible, despite those set of circumstances, because Raikkonen’s pace had also been compromised by the incident.
But the Finn came on to the straight, seemingly, more or less at the same velocity as someone who had correctly gone through the chicane. That was just down to how the incident panned out – a little unlucky for Hamilton, but that’s the game.
Basically, Hamilton should not have been in a position to attempt, and complete, an overtaking manoeuvre so soon after completely missing a corner.
Logically, the fact that he was proves that he had done gained an advantage – i.e. cut the chicane – in order to have the power to essentially out-brake his opponent at the next turn. The six km/ph that Hamilton wiped off to give the lead back did not do enough to bring him back to his natural pace on the straight, had he gone through the chicane in a standard fashion.
The Briton was given a very damaging penalty for his transgression, but that is a whole other argument, one I’m not willing to get into right now.
The guy who wrote that is a clown, clearly with little or no experience of watching or taking part in motorsport.
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988,
1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998,
1999, 2007McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
good video & I agree racing and should have been left at that.
