McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh says assurances from the FIA led the team to believe that Lewis Hamilton had done enough to negate the advantage he gained by short-cutting the track in last Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was later stripped of his victory and relegated to third place after the stewards ruled that he had passed Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen in an unfair manner.
Although the Briton immediately let Raikkonen back through after straight-lining the Bus Stop chicane, he repassed the Ferrari under braking for the ensuing La Source hairpin only seconds later.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis revealed to ITV Sport after the race that the team had checked with FIA race director Charlie Whiting that Hamilton had conformed to the rules, which require any advantage gained by short-cutting the course to be promptly rectified.
“Inevitably, we wanted to know whether that was deemed to be a correction so we checked with Charlie," Dennis told Ted Kravitz.
"Of course Charlie can only give an opinion because he's not the stewards, but he gave the opinion that we had complied properly to the regulations.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, Whitmarsh said the team was in fact given two separate assurances that Hamilton had behaved correctly – and that, had it not been given the thumbs-up, it would have told its driver to let Raikkonen back through.
“From the pit wall, we then asked Race Control to confirm that they were comfortable that Lewis had allowed Kimi to repass, and they confirmed twice that they believed that the position had been given back in a manner that was ‘okay’,” said Whitmarsh.
“If Race Control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis’s actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to repass for a second time.”
Speaking in detail about the incident for the first time, Hamilton claimed that he straight-lined the chicane in order to avoid an accident with Raikkonen, with whom he was wheel-to-wheel on the outside line as they braked for the Bus Stop.
He also confirmed that he then lifted off to allow the Ferrari past on the start/finish straight.
“In the closing stages of the race I was catching Kimi consistently, lap by lap, and with three laps remaining I got close enough to attempt to overtake him on the entry to the last chicane,” Hamilton said.
“I managed to get slightly ahead of him in the braking area for the first apex of the chicane.
“He fought back approaching the second apex – but, in doing so, he left no room for me on the inside line.
“The only way for me to avoid a collision was therefore to cut inside the second apex.
“I came out of the second apex in front of Kimi and so I momentarily lifted off on the straight, to ensure that Kimi got back in front.
“The team also came on the radio and instructed me to allow Kimi to repass, which I had already done.
“As a result, Kimi crossed the start/finish line ahead of me and 6.7km/h (4.2mph) quicker than me.”
Hamilton insisted that his subsequent pass of Raikkonen into La Source was a separate outbraking manoeuvre, and not set up due to extra momentum he was carrying by virtue of cutting the chicane – a contention that is sure to be central to McLaren’s case, which has now been sent to the International Court of Appeal.
“After allowing Kimi to completely repass, I crossed from the left side of the track to the right side of the track, passing behind Kimi in the process,” said Lewis.
“I then attacked Kimi on the inside of the first corner, and successfully outbraked him.”