Mercedes Benz

I am personally revolted by what FIA did today. After an impressive race in Belgium, at Spa, dominated by a high dose of adrenaline, with many unpredictable changes of situation and weather, Lewis Hamilton managed to score another impressive win in the 2008 chamionship. But FIA thought this was not the case...


After a faulty and potentially risky overtaking manouevre, Hamilton was thrown unintentionately by Kimi Raikkonen outside the track and thus was forced to avoid a contact between the cars and practically shortcircuit the last curve of the circuit before the straight line where the starting grid is located. As FIA regulations ammend, such situation obliges the driver who has done it to rejoin the track only behind the other driver that he first intended to overtake. Which actually happened in the case of Lewis and Kimi.

However, some stewards believed the British driver gained a clear advantage with that manouevre. As a result, after a close inspection of the case, FIA officials decided to blatantly steal the victory from Lewis with the help of a pointless decision, putting him back with 25 seconds, as a penalty. The new winner was declared Felipe Massa, a very invisible presence on the circuit in the Belgium GP. Second came Nick Heidfeld, while Lewis Hamilton was relegated to third position. McLaren announced that the team will do an appeal to FIA Court on that decision.

No matter how hard some would try to convince us that FIA was right, the real winner of the 2008 Belgium F1 GP is Lewis Hamilton. If law exists somewhere in this world, then I expect Hamilton will reinherit his well-deserved victory. But at FIA it is always a matter of Ferrari...

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