Hamilton penalty hands Massa victory
Lewis Hamilton has been penalised by race stewards at the Belgian Grand Prix who deemed he had cut a chicane while fighting for the lead with Kimi Raikkonen. The ruling means that Felipe Massa is now the official winner of the race and moves to within two points of Hamilton in the championship.
In a sensational twist to a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix, stewards ruled that Hamilton gained an unfair advantage when he cut the final Bus Stop chicane while challenging Kimi Raikkonen for the lead. Hamilton rejoined ahead of Raikkonen but let the Finn slip just ahead back into the lead before overtaking him at La Source.
Stewards applied a 25-second penalty to Hamilton's race time which drops him to third overall, promoting Massa to the win and Heidfeld to second. The penalty means that Hamilton now has 76 points in the drivers' championship to Massa's 72.
**UPDATE**
Mclaren have decided to lodge an official appeal against the stewards decision at todays Belgium GP.
Quote:
Mclaren have officially said:
"We looked at all our data and also made it available to the FIA stewards," a McLaren spokesperson told Autosport.
"It showed that, having lifted, Lewis was 6km/h slower than Kimi as they crossed the start/finish line.
"Having passed the lead back to Kimi, Lewis repositioned his car, moving across and behind Kimi to the right-hand line and then outbraked him into the hairpin.
"Based on this data, we have no option other than to register our intention to appeal."
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Source: Ferrari Fans,
F1 Racing and
Bleacher Report
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09-07-2008, 09:00 PM
Hamilton penalty hands Massa victory
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