Kimi, press, slam ‘stupid’ Hamilton

Raikkonen's broken rear wing was the result of Hamilton running into the back of his car while stationary

Ferrari

(GMM) Lewis Hamilton declared himself "not happy" with his FIA penalty after shunting championship rival Kimi Raikkonen out of the Canadian grand prix on Sunday in a bizarre pitlane crash.

Stewards ordered that pole sitter Hamilton, and also Nico Rosberg, be demoted ten places down the Magny Cours grid in two weeks, after ignoring the pitlane traffic light and plowing into stationary cars.

"Obviously I am not happy but they can throw what they want at me, I will come back stronger," the McLaren driver said as he left Montreal.

23-year-old Hamilton, however, did not have many allies in the wake of the incident, even among the normally giddy British specialist press.

The Daily Star said the former championship leader "looked like a learner driver" in Canada, the scene of his maiden win a year ago.

The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian described Hamilton's mistake as respectively "silly" and "mortifying", while Telegraph correspondent Kevin Garside admitted that it had been a "schoolboy cock-up".

Raikkonen insisted in Ferrari's post-race statement that he was not angry about the smash, but he was scathing in interview with Italian television.

"It was stupid," he said, denying that not seeing a red light can be compared with his crash into Adrian Sutil at Monaco two weeks ago.

The Finn dismissed Hamilton's post-race claim that he actually saw the red light before plowing into his stationary Ferrari.

Hamilton said: "I was trying to be cautious. I looked at the red light and I looked back and they'd stopped.

"There were two cars side by side. If they'd been in a line I would have seen it a bit faster."

Raikkonen was not impressed.

"I saw a red light and chose to stop, someone else saw a red light and chose not to," he said.