Very debatable and a sword that most definitely is two-edged.

First of all, Hamilton passed the finish line (which is halway down the straight after they get out of the last turn) at as much as 6 kmh less than Kimi. That is a LOT, and more than enough to establish the fact that not only did he lift significantly to let Kimi by, as he should, but he was also at a disadvantage after doing so.

As for the rule in general, you need to be very careful not making it too temping to push others out of turn two in chicanes. If the driver who gets pushed out on the inside is at too much of a disadvantage (having to lift to let back past is more than enough) you will very quickly develop a trend where closing the door in turn two will become a very common strategy. And a very much undesirable one.

We need to encourage racing - not the very opposite, which is the case here.

If we disregard the huge mistakes several teams did during Q2 on saturday, several drivers did quite stunning races - most of all Kubica and Hamilton, but Massa did in fact do a quite good race as well - he was very very unlucky to leave the pits after his first stop heading right into the line of cars fighting in front of him... poor team strategy, then again nothing much he could done about it if empty car.

6 days to go!!!!!!
*Jumps around like a girl*

I was gonna post that today lol im really looking forward this weekends race qualifyiny will be interesting to c how the teams fair.

The race even better cant wait to c wot the weather will be too.

McLaren appeal in Paris today - looking forward to the result, hopefully public by tomorrow.

Ooo never posted on this thread...

The appeal has to be successful, there was nothing wrong with the move he did, he let raikonnen have the place back, he didnt get an advantage as he was going slower than him to let him past.

Personally its all ludicrust and if he doesn't get the points back then the system* is flawed as he played by the book and did nothing to break the rules

Anyway he shoudl still win it this year, as long as it doesn't go pear shaped like the last 2 races last year.

(so im literally saying what janmb said )

*the system where they let the driver back though

My only concern is that there might be pride involved on FIAs part. They have shown time and time again to be pretty self-protective when it comes to their own officials' mistakes.

Also there is the question of whether the appeal is valid at all... the penalty replaced what would normally been a drive-through, which in turn is not subject to appeal.

The worst part of it all is that there exists solid, technical proof for Hamilton doing as required in terms of letting Raikonnen back past.

The rule was ammended after that race tho, so it would still warranted a penalty NOW, but not at the time of the Spa race.

Edited at 23:01 Mon 22/09/08 (BST)

In all fairness, he let him back through for literally seconds. If he left it after the first corner no action would have been taken.

The point is that the current rules did not require him to do anything more. The start/finish line was about halfway down the straight after the chikane involved, and at that point, Raikonnen was 1: Ahead, and 2: Travelling 6 km/h faster than Hamilton because he had lifted.

How soon after that Hamilton was able to put pressure back on was not an aspect of those rules at all. NOW on the other hand, you are required to not only let pass, but refrain from attacking until after the following turn.

We will never know tho, because FIA, disappointingly but far from unexpected, ruled the appeal inadmissible - which is exactly what I wrote about in the my last post. In short, it means that since the 25 sec penalty replaced what would normally been a drive-through, the penalty itself is not appealable. In short, whether or not Hamilton broke the rule is not subject to the case at all, since he is refused to have a case in the first place.

To move on a bit, the interesting part for me is the direction this is sadly taking. F1 needs MORE racing, not less, and this most certainly does not help any.

Press release:

"Hamilton, who had handed back the position gained before overtaking Raikkonen again into the next corner, told the court in Paris he felt he had acted according to the rules.

"McLaren had also pointed out to the court that race control had twice given Hamilton the all-clear at the time."

""We are naturally disappointed with today's verdict, and to have received no ruling on the substance of our appeal," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh.

""No-one wants to win grands prix in court but we felt that Lewis had won the Belgian Grand Prix, on track, in an exciting and impressive manner.""

I think that shows that it's just one big conspiracy.............

We will see what FIA have to say when Hamilton ends up winning the championship.



No doubt he's going to win one at least, this season at the moment you can't call it.
Shame Raikkonen has lost his touch.

Edited at 23:47 Tue 23/09/08 (BST)

Why would they have anything to see about that?

Edited at 21:04 Wed 24/09/08 (BST)

It was a joke.

Was before my morning coffee - I really need to learn not to read or post before that

Can't wait for this weekend anyways - Singapore is going to be great! Just hope the wheather doesn't turn too bad.

I read on f1 web that they had a test run and it was peeing down with rain and massa was loving it lol.

Bet kimi isnt he seems to struggle in rain.

Im guessing the test runs and qualifying will be at night as well.

Im really looking forward to it whatever the weather lol.

Ooooo, imagine that, a night race combined with rain, that will be insane!

Exciting as well!
Really looking forward to this.

Looks spectacular

Today is the day we get to see the track oooh im excited lol.

if u ask me it gets pretty boring going around and around and around lmao*gets dizzy*