Hamilton stripped of Australian GP points
Lewis Hamilton's McLaren stripped of third place at Australian GP
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Thursday, 02, Apr 2009 10:40
Lewis Hamilton has been stripped of his third-place finish at the Australian grand prix for "deliberately misleading the stewards", it has been announced.
The sport's governing body, the FIA, have released a statement explaining their decision, which also sees Toyota's Jarno Trulli reinstated to third place.
This follows a further investigation into the illegal pass by Trulli, which resulted in a 25-second penalty for the Italian and his demotion to 12th place overall for passing under safety car conditions at Albert Park.
However, the FIA said "new elements" of evidence - assumed to be radio contact between the pit wall and Hamilton's car instructing the Briton to move over and allow Trulli to pass - have seen McLaren excluded completely from the Melbourne classifications.
The incident at the grand prix led to much confusion during the race, when Hamilton appeared to slow down.
And inthenews.co.uk understands that the world champion was told to be overly cautious and allow Trulli to take back his position on the track - after a borderline pass by the McLaren driver earlier in the race saw him overtake.
Hamilton was stripped of his victory in Spa last season for the illegal use of a run-off area in passing Kimi Raikkonen.
The Briton was summoned to an investigation earlier today, with the sport's governing body then releasing a statement confirming his disqualification for deliberately misleading race stewards when he apparently withheld evidence at Trulli's hearing on Sunday.
The statement in full reads: "The stewards, having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian formula one grand prix, consider that driver number one 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 March 29th 2009, a breach of article 151c of the International Sporting Code.
"Under article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver number one 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."
McLaren has since issued a reaction to the FIA sanction, confirming the team will not appeal the decision and admitting it had made a mistake in not disclosing information to the stewards at the initial hearing.
"McLaren Mercedes understands that the stewards made their decision on the basis of reviewing radio transmissions between the driver and the team," a statement from the team reads.
"The team mistakenly believed that the radio transmissions had been reviewed by the FIA on Sunday March 29th 2009, and consequently did not believe it was necessary to discuss them with the stewards on that date.
"Nonetheless, the McLaren Mercedes team now regrets that it did not do so, accepts the stewards' decision and will not appeal."