Formula 1 legend Murray Walker says he feels that the decision not to punish
Lewis Hamilton for his actions behind the Safety Car in the Japanese Grand Prix is a 'victory for common sense'.
Hamilton, who leads the championship race by twelve points going into the Chinese GP this weekend, was called before the stewards after new video evidence - captured from the crowd and uploaded on
YouTube - gave a different view of the incident that saw
Mark Webber and
Sebastian Vettel collide while behind the Safety Car at Fuji.
It left the young Briton facing the prospect of losing the ten points he gained for his victory at Fuji but the stewards decided he should face no action, and also removed the ten place grid penalty that had been imposed on Vettel for his part in the incident.
"This is a well deserved victory for common sense," Walker told the
BBC. "What happened at Fuji last weekend was that the weather was so appalling that it was miraculous that the drivers were able to even stay on the track. They had to follow the Safety Car for some 20 laps and obviously Lewis Hamilton lost concentration for moment and veered to the right, which is hardly surprising. As a result of that, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel collided. Yes, you could say it was Lewis' fault but it wasn't done with malice - I am quite confident of that.
"Lewis has been under colossal pressure and it is unprecedented in the history of motor sport for a driver in his first year to be in contention the world championship. Lewis has been in that position from the third race and has been under huge amounts of pressure but I'm sure that he will be his usual cheerful self again after this result and Formula 1 will have forgotten about it in a year's time.
