An interesting Grand Prix for a change at Spa, Belgium,with action right up until the final lap. And afterwards in the stewards box.
An early spin from Lewis Hamilton gifted Kimi Raikkonen the lead and it basically continued that way until the last few laps when a battle royal began. Great stuff for the spectators. Hamilton overtook Raikkonen but was nudged by the Ferrari driver and had to take evasive action by entering the ‘escape route’, effectively cutting the corner. In order not to be penalised for gaining an unfair advantage, he slowed and let Raikkonen past.
Having done so, Hamilton then took advantage of the slipstream and passed the Ferrari at the next corner. Then came the rain, two laps from the finish line. Raikkonen span as he tried too hard to catch Hamilton and then lost it totally, ending up in the wall, his race over.
Nick Heidfeld in his BMW made the decision to enter the pits and change to wet weather tyres with just the two laps to go and shot from eighth place to third, his strange gamble paying off. Fernando Alonso left it until the final lap to change to wets, a move which baffled the commentators, but it worked and he came in fourth.
So Hamilton was the winner, Massa second and Heidfeld third. But only for a while. The stewards at the track awarded Hamilton a 25 second penalty for ‘gaining unfair advantage’ when he had to cut the corner during his battle with Raikkonen, a decision which demoted him to third.
McLaren, however, have lodged an appeal. Teams these days track data for just about everything that goes on during a race. They say that, to start with, Hamilton was actually in front of Raikkonen when he went off and therefore gained no advantage, fairly or unfairly. Secondly, the data from the car shows that Hamilton slowed by 6 kph to allow Raikkonen past, aware that if he did not yield his position he might be penalised.
And Raikkonen crashed his car anyway, so who did Hamilton end up gaining an advantage over? Having watched the incident several times, the penalty does seem to be a little on the harsh side given that Hamilton had no option but to go off after being hit by Raikkonen other than to instigate a crash.
As it stands at the moment, though, Felipe Massa is the winner in all this and moves to within two points of Hamilton in the championship.
Best race for years.