McLaren take Lewis Hamilton crash penalty on the chin
McLaren have accepted Lewis Hamilton’s punishment for causing an “avoidable accident” with Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, who was branded “stupid” by Raikkonen, was handed a 10-place grid penalty for shunting the world champion out of the Montreal race in a pit-lane collision yesterday.
The punishment means that Hamilton will start the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours 10 places down on his qualifying position, while Williams’ Nico Rosberg was given the same sanction for his part in the crash.
McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said: “We regard the stewards’ decision as hard but fair. Hard in the sense that it clearly makes Lewis’s task more difficult in Magny-Cours, but fair on the grounds that we have no argument with their (the stewards’) contention that he did cause an avoidable accident.
“Sometimes severe consequences can be the results of split-second misjudgements. And in this instance we’ll take the loss of a likely win and the 10 place grid penalty squarely on the chin.”
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