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FIA fiasco

I was outraged at the stewards' decision to penalise Lewis Hamilton at the Spa-Francorchamps race, especially after letting Ferrari off the hook at Valencia.

The FIA seems to make a habit of being severe to McLaren and lenient to Ferrari.

Contrast the different treatment both teams received in 2008:

Ferrari

In Valencia, Massa was let out of the pits next to another car, which could have led to carnage, and would normally have led to a drive-through penalty, yet Ferrari were just given a small fine.

In Monaco, Raikkonen used Adrian Sutil's Force India car to slow down, but escaped penalty.

McLaren

At Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton had little option but to take to the escape lane, as Raikkonen left him no room, and Hamilton let Raikkonen past before going behind him and overtaking, in a brilliant manoeuvre. The stewards gave him a 25 second penalty, demoting him to third place.

Three-time world champion Niki Lauda said it was, "the worst judgment in the history of F1. The most perverted judgement I have ever seen."

Previously, Hamilton rear-ended Raikkonen in the pits in Canada, writing-off both cars and was given a 10-place grid drop for the next round in France.

updated Tue 09 Sep '08   give feedback...

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: : © Mike Bliss 2009