F1 » Opinions divided over Hamilton French penalty

How can they claim that no advantage was gained? He was able to brake later by going straight and he shortened the track. He was off the track for at least 100 meters! If Lewis had been on the inside like Zanardi at Laguna Seca then maybe an argument could be made that there was no advantage. They may need to modify the track to prevent drivers from coming back so easily. If he had been foced to go through a tire chicane before re-entering he may have decided not to attempt the pass there. Once Heikki let Lewis by (team orders) it was too late to give the position back to Vettel.

I was/am a fan of Hamilton since his GP2 days but he clearly took an advantage by cutting the corner and should have let Vettel back past and passed him properly (admittedly similar incidents have gone unpunished lately). He deserved the penalty and will hopefully learn from it. He's made far to many rash mistakes, seemingly not realising he's in F1 now, not GP2 or F3.

What would the kiddies say if LH braked causing SV to hit him? "dum dum lulu shooda taken the run off" He thought he was past, his team thought he was past, the FIA didn't. If you think the place is yours you arnt gonna give it up, thats racing. Why didn't we see a definitive angle to judge for ourselves? I sure hope the FIA didn't base there decision on what we saw, they should show their video evidence in future like other sports do.

According to the commentators on SpeedTV the drive-through penalty only cost Lewis 4 seconds as the pit lane is so short. If this is true, it does not explain why this ruined his race. I think that they had a bad strategy. They should have gone for a three stopper and they should not have used so much down force. If you cannot go fast in a straight line you cannot make a pass on this track unless someone makes a mistake. Lewis had a great pass on Alonso but it was because Alonso went wide.

@Geeorge
I love your logic!
So if you have faster car then you can break rules.

Hmmm Both Maclarens penalised in France, Mark webber even approched Maclaren & said he was not impeded at all, me thinks something stinks!

The fact is that if there wall close to the chicane, he would not have attempted the move. He needed to straight line the chicane in order to fully excecute the move. He gained an advantage and deserved a penalty.