Opinions divided over Hamilton French penalty.

The key question that I have not yet seen answered is "did McLaren call up the stewarts of the meeting to ask if Hamilton should let Vettel by"? If they did we can conclud something, if they didn't them McLaren would seem wanting?

again hamilton shows his youth hes a flash in the pan, and his team are just cheats

Why they say it is controversial?! I was watching it on TV, immediately after he made that pass I expected him to give the position back, it was so damn obvious from the camera on his car and TV replay. I was surprised he didn't. How can someone bend rules like that and hope to get away?!

I watched it live on TV as well and did not think that he did anything wrong. Ultimately he did have the better car and would have passed SV anyway. The car was not red enough to get by without a penalty. Typical F1 rules favors only RED cars.

It was obvious that he should of let Vettel pass him back, but no, Mr no-it-all decided that he is better than thou and as he can walk on water, decided that he would charge into the back of his team mate.
What a total fcukwit, he does not act or drive as a proffesional F1 driver. Hamilton does not deserve to become this years world champion.

I hate Hamilton because he's better than my favorite driver. The nerve of him actually having confidence in his talent. Stupid Brit.

Had he stayed on the track he wouldn't have been able to stay ahead of Vettel. Advantage gained.

If there is any doubt, he should just let him by. Like Vettel said, he would have passed him again anyway.

These kind of driving happens when you are desparate to pass some cars, hamilton himself said that few days ago

You do wonder with the rules sometimes. I think (even though I'm a Hamilton fan) that he should have played safe and taken let Vettel back passed.

Although I moaned about how the FIA only penalises McLaren while watching the race yesterday I think Ferrari have had two harsh penalties given to them both in Fuji 2007 and Monaco 2008 for tyre infringements.

I think F1 is still exciting and fun to watch gone are the days of always schumacher win again. WDC is now wide open, may the best man with the best car win

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.