We Spoke Too Soon!

FIA has ruled that Lewis Hamilton did not win the GP at Spa because he failed to yield the lead back to Kimi Raikkonen after taking a short cut across the grass. The way I saw it (on TV of course) was that he had the choice of hitting the Ferrari or going through the grass, so he took the off course excursion. When he came back on course, his McLaren was positioned to the Ferrari drivers left.

He then fell back behind the Ferrari, as he should have, and passed to the drivers’ right. How did he get from the left side of the Ferrari over to the right side where he made the pass if he didn’t yield the lead and pass behind it?

One TV guy says that he failed to yield the “momentum advantage” that he got by not making the turn. To drop back and move from the left side of the Ferrari to the right side means that he at least backed off the throttle and maybe even touched the brakes. That would seem to have removed his momentum advantage.

If you watched the “self centered TV windbag” (Dave Despain) you heard opinions from mild to wild as to what is going on, but it is all speculation. A lot of viewers apparently believe that the FIA is biased towards Ferrari, and at least one guy makes it out as a racial issue. The FIA considers F-1 an international sport and was quick to speak out against Alonzo and some fans in Spain the last time the race issue came up, so the idea of a Ferrari bias seems to hold more weight, but who knows.

We will wait to hear what they have to say, and how it works out, but based on the live action I saw on TV, I think Lewis complied with the rules.