Felipe Massa remains the winner of the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, after the FIA ruled that F1 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton and McLaren-Mercedes’ appeal to be re-instated as race-winners is ‘inadmissible’.

Formula 1 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton has failed in his bid to see the penalty that cost him victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps overturned – after the FIA today ruled his and McLaren-Mercedes’ appeal ‘inadmissible’.

The British star took the chequered flag first on the road after getting the better of Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen in a thrilling late-race scrap in the Ardennes, but he was subsequently demoted back to third place when FIA stewards deemed he had gained an advantage in passing the Finn by cutting across the grass at the Bus-Stop chicane at the end of lap 42 of 44.

Though, under instruction from his team, Hamilton relinquished the lead once again, stewards agreed that his subsequent sling-shot past the scarlet machine into La Source only a matter of seconds later had been aided by his off-piste trajectory, consequently handing the 23-year-old a 25-second penalty and gifting the win to Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.
McLaren took their case to the FIA Court of Appeal, which listened to the arguments of both the Woking-based outfit and the Scuderia yesterday (Monday) before announcing its verdict today. Following the hearing in Paris, an official FIA statement read:

‘At the Grand Prix of Belgium, run on 7 September 2008, and counting towards the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship, the stewards of the meeting imposed a drive-through penalty upon the driver of car No. 22, Lewis Hamilton, for a breach of Article 30.3 (a) of the 2008 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Appendix L, Chapter 4, Article 2 (g) of the International Sporting Code.

‘As the drive-through penalty was imposed at the end of the race, 25 seconds were added to the driver’s elapsed race time in accordance with Article 16.3 of the FIA 2008 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

‘Article 152 of the International Sporting Code states that drive-through penalties are ‘not susceptible to appeal’.

‘The competitor Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes appealed the stewards’ decision before the International Court of Appeal in a hearing in Paris on September 22nd.

‘Having heard the explanations of the parties, the court has concluded that the appeal is inadmissible.’

According to Article 16.3, the stewards can choose to penalise a driver involved in an incident either through a drive-through penalty, a ten-second stop-and-go or a drop of ten grid positions at the following event.

FIA’s Court of Appeal to consider McLaren appeal on September 22.

The FIA, Formula 1’s governing body, has announced that McLaren’s appeal against the penalty handed to Lewis Hamilton at the recent Belgian Grand Prix will be heard in two weeks time.

The date was confirmed on Friday, ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

It will mean the FIA’s Court of Appeal will convene in Paris on Monday September 22 in the week leading up to the inaugural event in Singapore and the sport’s first ever night race.

Hamilton was stripped of his victory at Spa after the stewards gave him a 25-second penalty post-event for gaining an unfair advantage in his battle with Kimi Raikkonen late on by cutting out part of the Bus Stop chicane.

Although the move was unintentional, coming as the result of a botched passing attempt, and despite Hamilton having subsequently backed off to allow the Ferrari back in front, the officials deemed that the Briton should not have regained the lead at the very next corner.

The penalty dropped the Englishman provisionally to third, behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.

Before the hearing can even get underway though, the BBC reports that the court will have to decide if it is even allowed, as there is some dispute over whether or not teams can appeal against a time penalty.

The FIA’s decision to penalise McLaren-Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and strip him of his hard-won victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps has come in for wide condemnation within the F1 world.

The 25-second penalty that robbed McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton of victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps at the weekend has been slammed as ‘perverted’ and ‘the worst judgement in the history of F1′ – by a former Ferrari world champion.

Hamilton expertly won the race held around the challenging Ardennes circuit – widely acknowledged as the greatest test of a driver’s true level of skill the world over – after getting the better of Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen in a thrilling late-race scrap on a track rendered ever-more treacherous by the onset of rain whilst both men were still out on slick tyres.

Though it was the Briton who ultimately prevailed – taking the lead shortly before Raikkonen spun into the wall barely two laps from the chequered flag – he was subsequently handed a retrospective 25-second ‘drive-through’ penalty. That came after FIA stewards deemed Hamilton had gained an advantage by cutting the Bus-Stop chicane as the duo battled wheel-to-wheel through the last corner, consequently dropping him down to third place in the final reckoning and gifting victory to chief title rival Felipe Massa.

The punishment has come in for heavy attack from all quarters, with Hamilton vigorously protesting his innocence and British newspaper the Daily Mail exclaiming ‘Just when you thought F1 couldn’t get any more ridiculous’ and suggesting the 23-year-old is the ‘victim of a conspiracy against McLaren’, with the governing body presiding over a ‘polluted sport’.

‘Instead of celebrating one of the greatest duels of recent times, revelling in true genius by Raikkonen and Hamilton and lauding a remarkable win, that same old stench emanated from Formula 1,’ the report read.

“This is the worst judgment in the history of F1,” blasted triple F1 World Champion Niki Lauda, a man who clinched two of his three drivers’ crowns with Ferrari, and the other with McLaren almost a decade later. “[It is] the most perverted judgment I have ever seen.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable when three functionaries (the stewards) influence the championship like this.”

The announcement was just the latest in a long line of blows to the sport, whose credibility has already been seriously tarnished in the last twelve months by the infamous spy row of last summer – which gravely damaged relations between McLaren and the FIA, with the former being meted out a sporting record $100 million fine and disqualification from the constructors’ world championship – and the Max Mosley sex scandal earlier this year.

McLaren-Mercedes’ F1 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton sees his hard-fought Belgian Grand Prix victory at Spa-Francorchamps today sensationally taken away from him post-race by FIA stewards.

Belgian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton has been stripped of his stunning victory in the event at Spa-Francorchamps today after he was handed a 25-second post-race penalty by FIA stewards.

The punishment followed an investigation into the incident between the McLaren-Mercedes star and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, when Hamilton tried to go around the outside of his Finnish rival into the Bus-Stop chicane but – finding himself running out of room – instead had to take to the grass and rejoined the circuit along the start-finish straight alongside the reigning world champion.

Though the Formula 1 World Championship leader subsequently backed off to allow Raikkonen past him again as per the sport’s regulations, race stewards deemed that a time penalty was appropriate, dropping the Briton back to third place in the final reckoning behind newly-instated winner Felipe Massa and BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

The news also sees Hamilton’s title hopes dealt a blow, as his eight-point advantage over Ferrari’s Massa – who himself controversially escaped a time penalty in the European Grand Prix in Valencia a fortnight ago, when his Ferrari pit crew released him into the path of Force India’s Adrian Sutil during the Brazilian’s second stop – has now been reduced to just two, with five races of the season remaining. Raikkonen sits 19 points adrift in fourth.