Hamilton passed too soon – Penalty justified
"There was no conspiracy against anybody, McLaren included. We acted professionally and within the FIA rules. Hamilton took a short cut inside of the corner while off the track," Thathi told Reuters.
British tabloid newspapers have claimed Hamilton was a victim of a conspiracy against McLaren after the stewards decided he had cut the chicane and gained an unfair advantage over Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton was relegated to third place
"We had a choice to mete out a time penalty or 10 grid places in the next Grand Prix race. We opted for the former and handed a time penalty of 25 seconds," Thathi said.
"I know I am a very unpopular person in the United Kingdom now, but then I was doing my job and I know I acted professionally."
09/09/08 (GMM) There is plenty of negativity about Lewis Hamilton's Spa penalty doing the rounds, but not all figures in the formula one paddock believe the stewards were wrong to strip the Briton of his win.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa – the belated recipient of the Belgian GP trophy – and Kimi Raikkonen, who was on the receiving end of the Hamilton move, believe the McLaren driver was in the wrong.
"There are rules about cutting chicanes and gaining an advantage. I don't have anything (else) to say," world champion Raikkonen said.
Massa, meanwhile, said Hamilton was "a bit too optimistic" in passing Kimi so soon after cutting the Bus Stop chicane.
He said the issue has often been discussed in driving briefings.
"It has been made absolutely clear that anyone cutting a chicane has to fully restore the position and also any other eventual advantage gained," Massa said.
"If Lewis had taken the chicane correctly, he would never have been able to pass Kimi on the very short straight that follows is."
Hamilton's former McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, said the F1 world should accept the stewards' decision.
"In the end, what they say is always fair, whether you like it or not," the Spaniard told Cadena SER radio.
09/09/08 Lewis Hamilton paid the price for passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen too soon after cutting a chicane, according to his title rival Felipe Massa.
Massa said Hamilton was "maybe a bit too optimistic" in taking the lead.
"If Lewis had taken the chicane correctly, he would never have been able to pass Kimi on the very short straight that follows it," he said.
Formula One rules forbid drivers from gaining an advantage by cutting a chicane.
"What Lewis did is the sort of thing that can happen," Massa wrote on his website, "but I think he was maybe a bit too optimistic in thinking he could just hand back the position, albeit only partially to Kimi, and then immediately try to pass him again.
"Incidents like this have often been discussed in the official driver briefings, when it was made absolutely clear that anyone cutting a chicane has to fully restore the position and also any other eventual advantage gained.
"Maybe if Lewis had waited and tried to pass on the next straight, that would have been a different matter."
[Editor's Note: It is very painful for the British media (Hamilton biased media) to accept the fact that the penalty was indeed justified now that all the facts have come out about the decision. Should Raikkonen also have been penalized for bumping Hamilton while in the corner, yes, but he crashed out anyway so it does not really matter much as he scored no points.]