Lewis and McLaren penalised - Trulli re-instated!

In a shock report today, it appears that after a further review from the race stewards, new evidence indicates that the testemonies from Lewis and McLaren don't ring true!

It seems that after listinging to the team radio broadcasts that the stewards have decided to throw the book at Lewis and McLaren F1 for unsporting conduct :

"The Stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

"Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly."

It also transpires that Trulli was correct to retake his position given the behavior of Lewis's car. This except from Planet F1 explains some more :

As reported by Planet F1 this week, Trulli's mistake meant Lewis was within his rights to overtake.

Instead, believing that Lewis overtook Trulli illegally under either a yellow flag or behind the Safety Car, the Toyota team seemingly believe that it was Hamilton who was in the wrong.

Having ordered Trulli to stay in position, the Italian informed the team that he had retaken the McLaren.

Trulli, then utterly baffled by Hamilton, said in the transmission he even slowed down to let Hamilton back past but he didn't!

Toyota pitwall: "You slowed to let him pass again but he did not pass again. Ok, this is clear"

Trull: "Yes, very clear it [was] like that."

Futher to disqualifying McLaren, the stewards have now re-instated Trulli's position.

I partly feel that justice has been served, but I'm also disapointed in how quickly the usual suspects have resorted to burocracy and questionable conduct in order to secure points.

Clearly the yellow flag rule requires some attention, and for me it can be simplfied to one simple rule :

"The position a car has when entering the yellow flag is to be the same as it's position when leaving the yellow flag, unless the car is unable to continue the race".

This means cars can fall off the track and shuffle around while trying to keep their tyres warm, taking and retaking as they please, but when they are told "car in at the next lap" then should reform in the correct positions before continuing the race.

Pretty simple really.