Hamilton clearly gave the place back after being forced to run wide in accordance with the rules what more could he do to comply? If it now seems that not only do you have to let the other driver through if you gain track position after running wide but also give them a certain lead distance then why does it not state this in the rules? Perhaps because it is impossible to do without stopping the race and getting out a tape measure before racing resumes!

As a final point, if Hamilton is deemed to of gained an advantage from the incident and is punished by 25 seconds then Massa should also be stripped of his Valencia win because he was released early from the pit lane, earlier than was safely permitted, so he came out on the track a few seconds earlier than he should of been which is clearly an unfair advantage and thus a 25 second penalty should be imposed here also.If they are going to impose post race penalties which I think personally are ridiculous than at least share them out evenly. I expect then to hear the FIA announce that Massa will be stripped of that win after a three week late stewards inquiry.Is there a time limit on post race stewards inquiries?

Did Lewis Hamilton comply with the rules set forth by the FIA?

and

Did Lewis Hamilton gain more advantage by cutting the chicane than he lost when he relinquished the lead to Kimi Raikonnen?

If the answer to the former is that yes, he complied with the rules as written, then the choice of the stewards to asses a penalty is wrong — regardless of the answer to question two. If F1 is to be considered a sport, the role of the governing body is to create rules and then ensure that those rules are enforced consistently. And the role of the competitors is to use every bit of advantage allowed to them within those rules.

I phrase that as a conditional statement because I haven’t read the actual text of the rules. (Maybe someone else can clarify)

I think the answer to the second question is much more complicated, and there’s much more room for debate here. Run-off areas, tire barriers, momentum, slip-streaming, etc. are all part of this discussion.

But here’s the point I want to make — they’re independent questions. If Hamilton complied with the rules as written by the FIA — the stewards were wrong and should never have assessed the penalty. If Hamilton was able to gain advantage while complying with the rules, the fault lies not with Hamilton but with the rules.

A sportsman should never be expected to give up an advantage that is allowed to him within the rules. Racers are idolatrized for their ability to push everything to the limit – why should they be penalized for doing so?

This seems to me to be part of a larger trend of the FIA expecting its drivers to conform to rules that don’t exist — that’s no way to govern a sport.

the last 5 minutes of that race were the most exciting 5 minutes of racing I’ve seen in a long time

I 100% agree. I was moderating the live blog at the time and simply couldn’t keep up. It was so intense. I haven’t felt like that while watching a race in a long time. It was simply electrifying. I want more…

OllieEdit: Responded via email.

One cannot cut the chicane and then slightly slow down to let the other driver regain position! Sorry this is not what the sport is all about. So what “fans” are we talking about? F1/Track Racing or an another sort of fans?

Now is the penalty fair? That is another story indeed…

This whole appeal is confusing enough to us – the fans – how it must confuse the more casual watcher of F1…

I believe that it was Ron Dennis who digged up the Mosley scandal shortafter the season. This has been the reason that Mosley was almost unseated in his position.

In retaliation I believe that Mosley is pulling strings in the FIA to give McLaren a hard time.

Im not biased between McLaren and Ferrari but It can be clearly seen that McLaren is superior than Ferrari in the Belgium Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton kept all of us in the edge of our seats.

Quite frankly I have been following F1 since the time of Mikka Hakinnen and this Grand Prix is one of the best. The catch up that Hamilton did was simply spectacular and the finale of his duel in the closing laps of the race with no other than the current world champion Kimi is one of the best memories I have with Formula one. I believe that the bad blood between McLaren and FIA only hurts the F1 fans all over the world.

I live in Asia and the last good moments before I slept last night was the dogfight I just witnessed between Kimi and Lewis, and to see that get stripped away is really heartbreaking.

I agree that FIA seems to favor Ferrari in a lot of ways recently but let us not forget that FIA also changed the rules in order to limit the advantages of Ferrari during the dominance of Michael Schumacher, during the era when Mr Schumacher was dominating the sport, FIA drastically changed the rules in order to make F1 more exciting for us, I believe this shouldnt be done since it actually puts a limit to everyone’s capability of development.

I hope and pray that Lewis wins the World Championship so that all this will just be a road to his glory. He deserves to be number 1 in my opinion. He has fought battles with Alonso and Raikonnen last year and now he is fighting his battle with the FIA!

The runoff was valid since Lewis had no other choice but to take the escape route or he would have collided with Raikonnen. I’ve seen dirtier tricks from Schumi before.

He did let Kimi pass, as a matter of fact Lewis even tucked in behind Raikonnen. Kimi should have been the one penalised because during that instance he was steering left to right which could have been interpreted as blocking. Lewis was just too quick. The decision of the stewards are very subjective and baseless.

After 10 years of supporting F1. I am very sad to say that I will no longer be watching this sport unless Mosley retires or resign.

I’m dubious over whether a penalty was warranted, but if one was warranted, the 25-second penalty was correct. Not that this will gain the stewards any brownie points with a fan base made suspicious by numerous dodgy decision in the past.

This has hit the nail on the head, im a big Lewis supporter but he broke the rules because of impatience in the heat of the fight.

What we want to see, as spectators is overtaking, skill, speed, excitement. That we can always get from a GP race in the wet. Why not install a sprinkler system on the tracks, set to go off at random moments. What a spectacle that would be?

We also want a level playing field. For many years I have believed that F1 is “fixed”. By that I mean that the power of Ferrari in the sport is so great that they usually get the favourable decisions made by stewards, officials and the guardians of the sport (Ecclestone, Moseley etc ……. ha ha ha, some role models eh?).

The money in this sport is awesome. It also spreads unimaginable corruption. The media also goes quiet when biased pro-Ferrari issues are raised. Is this sport?

I have an idea. Why not Maclaren, BMW, Williams, Renault, and anybody else except Ferrari and Terro Rosso (Ferrari 2nd team), start a new F1 competition. Let Ferrari win their little competition every year and we can have our own. Lets all agree to promote the sport in the right way. The spectators are the most important and any non-Ferrari supporters will be outraged by the events in Spa today.

That’s it. I’ve had me grumpy bit. I for one will now turn away from this sport and will probably watch the moto GP instead. Purer. Or instead I might just settle down next Sunday, with a lovely glass or two of rioja and watch my tomotoes grow!

Make a labyrinth of tires in the escape road, so if you do have to bail, it will really slow you down.

@Tony: I’m not sure if I should say this, in case it riles you, but that corner – the old bus stop…
…well back when it was a decent corner (or corners, I should say), they actually had a labyrinth of tires to slow the cars down. Although the tyres were essentially on the inside (the corner is now vastly different, annoyingly) a few drivers did run off in the wet, and were forced to negotiate the walls.

You sir are 100% right, and although I think the safety element might come into play, F1 is dangerous, and the drivers are aware of this.

Great comment Tony (and Francois who first mentioned it), thanks for reminding me of this.

Hamilton screwed up/ran out of room, took the escape road, got back on track ahead of Kimi, and then let Kimi back past.

And I agree with the other posters about track design and all that, and I don’t really want to get side tracked, but a way to get around this problem would be to do what Indy car does: Make a labyrinth of tires in the escape road, so if you do have to bail, it will really slow you down.

Anyway, strikes me a dumb move by the stewards … Hell, if they really wanted to penalize him, why not dock Hamilton 10 spots for the next race?

There are clearly no REAL rules governing F1… just preferences.

Thanks for spoiling our sport Mosley and cronies

In fact, they should do this during the first 3 laps of the race, so everyone can have the afternoon free.

It is becoming more and more obvious that F1 is Ferrari with all the other contenders just to fill up the field…

Why dont they just give Ferrari the World Championship now. At least it will spare us fans from watching this farce! This is no different from rigging games!

Perhaps the stewards would enlighten everybody as to how many car’s lengths would be adequate to be judged as being fair!

At any event he appeared to have more traction on acceleration and adhesion through La Source

What happened to the benefit of the doubt and common sense?

@francois: The stewards do not understand this common sense thing, I fear.

I am disgusted and frustrated.

@Mike: This is why I fundamentally disagree with changing results after the race. For the relatively new fans like yourself, it must be so annoying. Unfortunately, the FIA do not always think of the very people who keep the sport running.

There’s no black and white anymore, it’s just grey, grey, grey.

@Jamie: The rules were once black and white!? Maybe in 1952!

the whole thing has tarnished what was a magnificent climax to the race

@phil: I completely agree. I understand if a judgement has to made after the race, but the result should not change, ever.

i feel utterly sick for lewis, its really bad what was done today

@janet: Thanks for your thoughts. I try and keep away from the Ferrari/McLaren FIA-bias issue, and I haven’t said if I agree or disagree with the reason behind the penalty (I thought it would be more fun for you guys to talk it out, as you all are). But I understad why you feel that way. It does look bad for the FIA and the stewards.

ITV certainly can’t keep the programme on air for a couple of hours longer than normal just to hear the final outcome

@Craig: I get what you saying, I really do. But I don’t think the stewards should have taken an hour or two to decide. I mean, Football referees have instant video playback on the side, don’t they, and the decision is made within seconds. So what is the difference between that and this? Playback the video, assess it from however many views there are, then refer to the rule book and make a judgement. Ten minutes, maybe?

Why does everything in Formula One have to come down to political bull-s**t and committee meetings?

But, they could have delayed the podium ceremony.

I don’t think this has anything to do with the stewards, this will be Bernie aware that TV companies all over the world want to be seeing the top 3 up on the podium as soon as possible after the race – and then into the press conference. It’s the same reason they aren’t allowed to do donuts on their slowing down lap – everything is timed like a military operation by Mr E!

I actually agree with what you are saying – it’s a shame that Massa doesn’t get to be on the top step etc, but logistically I can’t see how it can be helped.

ITV certainly can’t keep the programme on air for a couple of hours longer than normal just to hear the final outcome – and it would be especially bad if the original result turned out to stand after all!

And I doubt the thousands of fans would have hung about that long either – the podium ceremony would have taken place in front of empty grandstands.

It’s a situation that leaves a bad taste in the mouth I agree, but I think Lewis should have been punished and can’t see how else it could have been handled.

At the end of the day, the stewards just can’t win!!

I disagree. I understand that incidents at the end of races is harder to deal with, because of the time limitations.

But, they could have delayed the podium ceremony. They could have allowed the stewards time to analyse everything. And then they should have sent the right people up in the right order. Also allowing the many thousands of fans to cheer for the right driver and not feel cheated.