I'm going to explain this one slowly, so maybe those of us on here who consider me to be an anti-McLaren Antichrist (or should that be Anti-Messiah™ har-de-ha-ha) will finally get it.
1) It's the closing stages of the Australian GP. The safety car comes out. Trulli goes wide and off the road, Hamilton goes by.
2) There's some indecision on the McLaren radio. They've had more than their fair share of run-ins with race stewards, they know the score - play conservative, let it all come right in the wash. They tell Hamilton to let Trulli by.
3) Overtaking under the safety car is a no-no, except in certain circumstances. One - you can un-lap yourself when the race director says so. Two - if a car pulls off with mechanical trouble you don't have to park up with him. Three - if a car spins off but stays running, he re-joins the queue where he safely can and no-one that went by is penalised (see Australia 2002 and Coulthard going off under the safety car for the precedent).
4) And, crucially, four - if someone lets you back by after they overtook you, you don't get penalised. Think about it. It would be absurd to punish you for having been illegaly overtaken and then been given back your position, even for the FIA!
5) Trulli went off the road, and Hamilton overtook him. This is fine and within the rules, no-one has ever disputed that (and if they did they need to read the rulebook again). Hamilton then let Trulli back past. This is also fine - they weren't sure of the legality of the situation and decided to play it safe.
6) What
wasn't fine was what happened next. At some point between the end of the race and the meeting with the stewards, Hamilton and McLaren (I don't believe for one second that it was all Dave Ryan
) lost their collective heads. They decided that despite what they'd said over the radio about letting Trulli by, they were instead going to say that Trulli overtook of his own accord. This would be in contravention of the rules, and thus get him nobbled and Hamilton promoted in the standings.
That was the problem. What happened on-track was completely within the rulebook. Had Trulli not been let by but overtaken anyway, the place belonged to Hamilton. Because he was let past, it belonged to Trulli. Hamilton and McLaren thought they could pull a fast one and grab the place that they basically handed to Trulli. They were caught, and have been punished.
End of story. Was that clear enough for you FrankJH or should I run through it one more time? Not that it matters, 'cause I'm bored of the talk about it and want to move onto something else. Mind, I would dearly love to hear Dave Ryan's full account of what went on. Maybe in a few years we might get it, I doubt he'll take it to his grave.
