Jarno Trulli says he has been given justice after the FIA reinstated his third place in the Australian Grand Prix – and disqualified Lewis Hamilton and McLaren.
The Toyota driver was docked with a 25-second time penalty after the race for passing Hamilton under safety car conditions. That dropped him to twelfth place.
But the ruling was overturned today after the FIA deemed that McLaren had submitted misleading evidence during the post-race enquiry.
The governing body analysed radio communications which revealed that McLaren had asked Hamilton to let Trulli pass, something the team denied doing in the original hearing.
McLaren have since argued they did so out of fear that Hamilton himself could have been penalised for overtaking under the safety car, but the FIA uphold that the Woking squad mislead stewards.
The disqualification of Hamilton and McLaren promotes Jarno Trulli back into third place. The Italian was delighted with the news.
“I am happy because I just wanted some justice, and I am happy I got it,” he told autosport. “I am happy for myself, for the team – and I have to thank the FIA because it does not happen very often that they reconsider something.
“It must have been really hard for them, but they had common sense to really try and understand what was going on. I have been always honest and it has paid off.”
“We did not do anything, and I did not make any further comments. I think the FIA was clever enough to understand the situation. They had a very busy end of the race, with so many accidents, and they now had a bit more evidence to understand the case.
“So they wanted to hear us again, and it just confirmed what happened in Australia as I didn’t change my statement. That is it. I don’t know what made them change their mind.”
“Honestly, it was a controversial end of the race and it was hard for anyone to understand. But again I would like to thank the FIA because they had the strength to reconsider the case, giving new evidence and understanding what was going on.
“I never lied, I was always honest in my statements and I never changed it.”