in the stewards' judgement, hamilton did not sufficiently cede the advantage gained by cutting the track at the bus stop. when i saw it, i thought he should have backed off more. it took a while for him to pull behind the ferrari, and he immediately mounted another attack.
here is the on-board footage from both drivers. note how long it takes raikkonen to even appear in hamilton's camera upon leaving the bus stop. hamilton is accelerating at near-maximum, rather than maximum. the distance ceded to raikkonen is less than a car-length when the pass is made at la source.
many people are trying to find fault with raikkonen at several points:
bus stop, lap 41 - the line was his to take, no doubt.
to make matters uglier, hamilton is crying about his signature move being used against him.
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"I left him enough room, yet he picked up more pace going into the corner, and drove me as wide as he possibly could," said Hamilton, referring to the moment before he cut the Bus Stop chicane.
pouhon, lap 42 - both drivers slide wide through turns 10 and 11. hamilton re-enters the track sooner, raikkonen stays wide to avoid the treacherous paint. no advantage is gained by raikkonen staying wide. on lap 43, raikkonen again goes wide, this time re-entering the track sooner, and loses the car on the paint.
turn 12, lap 42 - nico rosberg spins, bringing out a local yellow. rosberg re-enters the track just ahead of the leaders, they themselves just getting on track and at speed. hamilton evades by going off track. raikkonen remains on track, and passes hamilton. the pass is entirely legal.
if there's something raikkonen should be penalized for, it's the awkward defensive double-move coming into la source. nico rosberg should be penalized for the unsafe re-entry at turn 12.
if the positions were reversed, people would say "ferrari got what they deserved." if it were any other cars, popular opinion would be "it's a shame the race isn't decided on the track, but who cares for those two anyway?"
regarding hamilton's penalty:
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16.3 The stewards may impose any one of three penalties on any driver involved in an Incident:
a) A drive-through penalty. The driver must enter the pit lane and re-join the race without stopping;
b) A ten second time penalty. The driver must enter the pit lane, stop at his pit for at least ten seconds and then re-join the race.
c) a drop of ten grid positions at the driver's next Event.
However, should either of the penalties under a) and b) above be imposed during the last five laps, or after the end of a race, Article 16.4b) below will not apply and 25 seconds will be added to the elapsed race time of the driver concerned.
i'll argue hamilton got the lesser of the two possible penalties. the 25s penalty leaves hamilton with 6 points from spa, and a good chance of a win, and 10 points, at monza. had he received the win and a 10 grid spot penalty at monza, he'd need to finish third to equal the points total, after starting eleventh at best.
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