McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso have been hit with 20-second penalties following a collision in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
The verdict means that Hamilton drops from seventh to eighth place, although Alonso retains sixth.
Hamilton’s penalty was for making more than one change of direction while defending in the build-up to the clash. Alonso’s was for causing a collision.
Alonso clipped the McLaren when trying to pass Hamilton after Turn Three.
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The Spaniard had quickly caught up with the Englishman, who was suffering from tyre problems.
On lap 45, with 11 remaining, Alonso challenged Hamilton on the long straight to Turn One. While defending, Hamilton made more than the permitted one change of direction, resulting in his penalty. BBC Sport
As a result, Japanese Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber moved up one position in the final order to seventh, swapping places with Hamilton.
McLaren driver Hamilton and two times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari were both called to appear before the race stewards following a collision when they were fighting for third place on lap 46.
Alonso appeared to drive into Hamilton’s McLaren, damaging the front wing of his Ferrari. Alonso’s left-front wing touched Hamilton’s right-rear wheel and within laps both were forced to make an extra pit stop. Times of India
Hamilton said he was not shocked to have been hit with the penalty which was for changing direction twice on the main straight.
Asked whether he felt it was fair, Hamilton said: “It’s racing. I’m not going to argue or disagree with the penalty.
“From my side I’m not allowed to move more than once. Do I class it as dangerous? No, but that’s the rule. Twenty seconds is not such a bad penalty for it. As for Fernando, he hit me, he got a 20-second penalty, but it didn’t really do anything to him. It doesn’t exactly work out as a penalty, but again, that’s racing.”
Alonso also played down the significance of the punishment especially because his penalty did not result in a loss of position.
“It doesn’t change positions, so there is no a big drama,” he said. “I finished sixth in the race anyway, and it was a race incident. I tried to overtake, we touched each other and unfortunately I broke the front wing and had to pit again, and I lost the podium possibility. But in the next race I will try again.”
When asked if he blamed himself or Hamilton for their collision, Alonso said: “It is one of those things. You try and race and we touched each other.
“The stewards called us to see our opinions and the decision is this. We are not the ones that decide, or have anything to say about the decision. We try to race, to try to enjoy the race in the cockpit and hopefully next time we finish both with no problems.” Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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