Formule 1: FIA verwerpt hoger beroep McLaren: Hamilton is zege kwijt

De officiële tekst van artikel 152 uit de FIA ISC is als volgt:

152. Penalties
Any breach of this Code or the Appendices thereto, of the national rules or their appendices, or of any Supplementary Regulations committed by any organiser, official, competitor, driver, or other person or organisation may be penalised or fined.
Penalties or fines may be inflicted by the stewards of the meeting and ASNs as indicated in the following articles.
The decision of the stewards becomes immediately binding notwithstanding an appeal if it concerns questions of safety or of irregularity of entry by a competitor entering an event or when, in the course of the same event, a further breach is committed justifying the exclusion of the same competitor.
Nevertheless, as a safeguard, if a competitor appeals, excluding the cases cited above, the penalty will be suspended, in particular to determine the application of any handicap rule having an influence on participation in a later event, without however the competitor and the driver being able to take part in the prize-giving or the podium ceremony, nor can they appear in the official classification of the event, in any place other than that resulting from the application of the penalty, unless they have won their appeal before the appeal courts and their rights have then been re-established.
Penalties of driving through or stopping in pit lanes together with certain penalties specified in FIA Championship regulations where this is expressly stated, are not susceptible to appeal.
In matters relating to the fight against doping, the sanctions mentioned in the anti-doping regulations set out in Appendix A to this Code shall be applied.
As well as this and independently of the prescriptions of the following Articles, the FIA may, upon the proposal and report of the FIA observer or the joint report of the two international stewards of the meeting designated by the FIA, directly inflict a penalty which will take the place of any penalty which the stewards of the meeting may have pronounced on any one of the above-mentioned parties. In this case, the ASN concerned cannot refuse to appeal to the International Court of Appeal on behalf of the party concerned.
Also, the stewards in the FIA Championships may decide the following penalties applicable to the competitors or to the drivers : suspension for one or more events, fine, withdrawal of Championship points. Points should not be deducted separately from drivers and competitors, save in exceptional circumstances. These penalties may, where applicable, be cumulated or applied with suspension of sentence.

McLaren is het niet eens met de uitspraak, omdat het in artikel 152 zou gaan over het opleggen van een drive through penalty. Hamilton werd bestraft met 25 seconden, een andere straf dus. Maar de uitspraak van de FIA is bindend en dus rest hen niets anders dan vooruit te kijken.

Lewis Hamilton reageert nuchter als altijd: “Ik ben teleurgesteld, maar niet depressief. Ik wilde niet crashen met Kimi, daarom moest ik de chicane wel afsnijden. We hadden een mooi gevecht en wilden allebei de race winnen maar namen geen onnodige risico’s. Ik heb hem direct erna de gewonnen positie teruggegeven en dacht daarmee eerlijk gehandeld te hebben. Maar ik kijk vooruit en ga gewoon vol door om het kampioenschap toch nog te winnen”.