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Latest Infomation on Spagate
By Sam Cooper September 9 2008
McLaren have confirmed their intention to appeal the stewards decision to penalise Lewis Hamilton's race victory, that demoted him down to third place, after a 25 second penalty, in what was, the best grand prix to take place in a long time. Its not just McLaren Fans that think that the penalty was wrong, fans all over the world, regardless of which team they support have condemned the penalty.

Upon announcing their clarification to appeal the decision to appeal. Martin Whitmarsh said: "Following our decision to register our intention to appeal the penalty handed out to Lewis Hamilton by the FIA Stewards at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, we hereby confirm that we have now lodged notice of appeal. Lewis describes the incident as follows."

Lewis Hamilton said: "In the closing stages of the race I was catching Kimi consistently, lap by lap, and with three laps remaining I got close enough to attempt to overtake him on the entry to the last chicane. I managed to get slightly ahead of him in the braking area for the first apex of the chicane. He fought back approaching the second apex - but, in doing so, he left no room for me on the inside line. The only way for me to avoid a collision was therefore to cut inside the second apex.

"I came out of the second apex in front of Kimi and so I momentarily lifted-off on the straight, to ensure that Kimi got back in front. The team also came on the radio and instructed me to allow Kimi to repass, which I had already done. As a result, Kimi crossed the start/finish line ahead of me and 6.7km/h quicker than me.

"After allowing Kimi to completely repass, I crossed from the left side of the track to the right side of the track, passing behind Kimi in the process. I then attacked Kimi on the inside of the first corner, and successfully outbraked him."

Martin Whitmarsh added: "From the pit wall, we then asked Race Control to confirm that they were comfortable that Lewis had allowed Kimi to repass, and they confirmed twice that they believed that the position had been given back in a manner that was 'okay'.

"If Race Control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis’s actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to repass for a second time."

Its quite clear to see why many people believe that McLaren and Lewis did nothing wrong, even in the interests of the sport, the FIA should just turn over the decision, and report that new evidence was uncovered.

I've spoken to many people over the matter, some have only just come to watch the sport on my recommendation. The sad thing is, they all thought it was a brilliant race, up until the stewards handed out a absurd penalty to Lewis.

Moreover, this link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzKMyFCaZy0 should explain, much better than I could, what happened on Sunday.

Lets just remind us of the last time a Ferrari cut a chicane, and see the difference what happened. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UnPeyzcHM 

Funnly enough Ferrari, nor Schumacher didn't get penalised.... how convenient.

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