Below is a photo of the (start of the) incident that the stewards investigated - Hamilton cutting through the Bus Stop chicane (that's the name) and gaining an advantage on Raikkonen.
Ofcoz, one still picture is not enough to look at the whole thing. Courtesy of Speed TV and the user that uploaded, let take a look at the video right before the incident with only a few laps left.
Really really exciting racing near the end as you can see, but now marred by the stewards' decision. Anyway, a rehease on what happened:
At the chicane,
- LH and KR side by side into the chicane,
- LH and KR touched (as mentioned by commentator),
- LH cutting into the chicane to avoid, coming out in front of KR (which is illegal)
- KR and LH about side by side
- LH ease off a bit to let KR pass through (by the rules, for the above incident)
- with KR slightly at the front, LH swipes to the left and then on the inside into the 1st corner,
- KR and LH touched again, but LH still leading
- KR going wide, using the outer road
- KR squeezes LH into the grass (at the incident with a Williams car)
- KR spins, giving lead to LH
- KR crashing out at last
To me, at the core of the controversy is
1) whether cutting into the chicane gave Hamilton enough momentum out of the chicane for an advantage against Raikkonen at the straight or
2) did Hamilton eased off enough, as a compensate for cutting through the chicane.
Point 1, is what the race stewards punished Hamilton for, i believe. But in official documents, Hamilton was punished not bcoz of the advantage, but for leaving the track.
Point 2, is what i believe.
From top down videos, it looks like Hamilton did not ease off enough - which would make me agree with the Stewards slightly. But the onboard-cam video below showed that Hamilton DID let Raikkonen's whole car through.
This would mean, Raikkonen was faster than Hamilton at the straight and Hamilton outbraked Raikkonen into the 1st corner, fair and square. Even official timing showed they crossed the start/finish line with 6km/h difference.
Normally, in other cases, if the "offended" car was let through after an unfair cut, there would be no problem at all. And anything afterwards would be a fair fight (which is the fight down the straight for LH and KR).
Here's the onboard-cam video below of Hamilton and Raikkonen, from before the incident to Raikkonen's crash. A skip to 3.25 would be advisable, which is right before the chicane incident.
My verdict, the stewards overreacted once again.
I'd hate to accuse the stewards for being unfair, but this is for real. There are countless incidents involving Ferrari that might put Ferrari in the wrong (like releasing their cars RIGHT IN FRONT of other cars in the pit lane, which is dangerous, or otherwise lose some time waiting), but no action was taken. And since this incident is beneficial to Ferrari, they took action.
*Edit*
After gathering more intel, looks like Raikkonen broke a rule too.
At the part where a Williams (with Rosberg in the car) was suddenly in front of Hamilton and Raikkonen took the chance to squeeze in between them and Hamilton ended up in the grass, YELLOW FLAGS was being waved.
Waving yellow flag means CAUTION. And cars are supposed to slow down and not allowed to pass each other. Yet Raikkonen did. Oh well...
Comments are welcomed and encouraged (especially Ferrari fans *nudge Jo*, Ferrari fan wannabes
and anti-McLaren/Lewis fans).
