Oh, cmon. Don't make it seem as if Hamilton was punished for nothing. He was punished because he gained an advantage by cutting a chicane and that is illegal.
True, however it is also standard and accepted pratice in F1 that if you gain a position under a situation such as this and then allow that drive to regain position no penalty willbe applied.
He was not in an advantagous position on the straight after he allowed KR to pass him, unless you are trying to say that being behind a car and going slower than it now consitutes an advatage?
He would never have been so close if he had exited Bus Stop properly, especially after trying to make an overtaking manouver in that corner.
How can you catagorically state that he would not have been that close? Sorry, but you can qualify that at all.
He would have been atleast a few car lenghs back, normally not much overtaking takes place at La source. Not nearly as much as at the bus stop and Les Combes.
And as has been said by others the situations were not normal at all.
Being so close because of cutting a chicane, whatever the circumstances, is illegal. Its an infringement.
Would you mind providing us with the exact FIA regulation that sates you can't be within a certain distance of anyother car after cutting a chicane?
That standard established penalty for such an infringement is a drive through penalty.
Funny I didn't notice that a drive through penalty was given?
Actually no standard penalty exists for the vast majority of regulation breaches at all.
FIA Sporting regulations
Penalties may be inflicted as follows in order of increasing severity :
− reprimand (blame);
− fines;
− time penalty;
− exclusion;
− suspension;
− disqualification.
Time penalty means a penalty expressed in minutes and/or seconds.
Any one of the above penalties can only be inflicted after an enquiry has been held and, in case of one of the last three, the concerned party must be summoned to give them the opportunity of presenting their defence.
For the FIA Formula One World Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship, a penalty consisting of the withdrawal of points over the whole of the Championship may be imposed.
Source - http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/917D67F70F1C5EE7C12573B7003DCEC5/$FILE/CSI%20modif%20ap%20AGO%20oct%2007%20ANG%20-%20Applic.%2001.01.08%20-%20clean.pdf
No standard penalty exists for any offence in the FIA sporting regulations, it is down to the stewards to issue the penalty, that is half the problem with the current situation.
He gained a competitive advantage by short cutting the chicane, Kimi had the corner, he was in the lead & Hamilton should have backed off & followed him through the chicane, by short cutting it he was in a much better competitive position going into turn 1, if he'd have backed off & followed Kimi he would have been a couple of car lengths back & wouldn't have had a shot at passing in turn 1 but most likely would have been close enough to draft by in the straight.
Seems pretty straight forward to me.
Its highly debatable that Kimi had the corner at all, and what is most certainly true, given that they were wheel to wheel, is had Hamilton backed off as you suggest, they would have locked wheels and a nice big accident would have occured. Running wide was just about the only option avaliable. Once back on the track Hamilton backed off and allowed KR to pass him, as I asked earlier would you now care to explain how being behind someone and being slower than someone gives you an advantage?
Regards
Scaff
