Hamilton stripped of Belgian win

5:20am Monday 8th September 2008

Lewis Hamilton was stripped of victory following Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix after stewards imposed a 25-second penalty on the McLaren driver.

Hamilton had taken the chequered flag after a dramatic conclusion to the race but a stewards' inquiry was launched into an incident on lap 42 of the 44-lap race in which he made a move on entry into the Bus Stop chicane, and collided with Kimi Raikkonen.

The effect of the stewards' decision meant victory was awarded to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, with Nick Heidfeld (BMW) promoted to second place and Hamilton falling to third.

On lap 42 the collision with the Ferrari driver pushed Hamilton onto the run-off area and he resumed in the lead before letting Raikkonen through, fearing an instant penalty from the race stewards.

However, on reviewing footage of the race they decided to punish Hamilton anyway. Raikkonen later crashed out as the wet weather took its toll.

Hamilton thought he had stretched his lead in the drivers' championship to eight points by finishing first, however, his advantage over Brazilian Massa has now been reduced to two.

A consolation for Hamilton will be that Raikkonen failed to finish, despite leading going into the closing stages of the race, and it looks increasingly like a straight head to head for the title between the current top two in the standings.

Fernando Alonso took fourth place in his Renault, followed by Sebastian Vettel for Toro Rosso, Kubica for BMW Sauber, Sebastien Bourdais in his Toro Rosso and Toyota's Timo Glock.

Glock was later handed a 25-second time penalty by race stewards after ignoring waved yellow flags at one point late in the race.

That resulted in the German losing his single point, after previously finishing in eighth place, with Red Bull's Mark Webber promoted into the final points-scoring position.

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