Planet-F1

Hamilton Snr: Do you want people to race or not?

Monday 8th September 2008

A livid Anthony Hamilton has hit out at F1 politics after his son Lewis was robbed of the victory in Sunday's Belgian GP.

Following his victory at Spa on Sunday Hamilton was informed by the race stewards that he had been handed a 25second penalty for cutting a chicane to gain an advantage over Kimi Raikkonen three laps from the end.

The penalty saw Hamilton dropped from first to third, thereby handing the race win to his title rival Felipe Massa.

The decision has angered many in McLaren, who are set to appeal, not least Hamilton's father Anthony.

"They can't take it away from Lewis," he told The Times. "They can take it away from Formula One, but they can't take it away from us because we won the race.

"Politics is one thing; we've been bitten twice - or on a few occasions - by decisions by the stewards but, in this case, I thought what Lewis did was correct.

"He was in front when he went into the corner, he played safe, didn't crash into Kimi, everybody came out safe. He gave up the position, and then he came back and overtook him.

"Do you want people to race or do you want people to just follow each other - this is Formula One isn't it?

"The thing is Lewis is a racing driver. You can go out and trundle around and just bring some points home - that's one thing. We want to win the championship and that's a slight difference.

"Lewis didn't do anything risky or anything dangerous. He thought, 'I could have him,' and he went for the move and it worked extremely well."