Decision is rough justice on Hamilton

Staff at McLaren-Mercedes have had a bit of a persecution complex this season as it seems barely a race goes by in their eyes without them being harshly treated by the sport's governing body. Their ill-feeling towards the FIA will not have been improved by the controversial decision to strip Lewis Hamilton of the victory in Belgium on Sunday night, demoting him to third place instead.

Hamilton was judged to have gained an advantage by cutting the Bus Stop chicane at the end of lap 42 as he diced with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen for the lead of the race, a tussle he eventually came out on top of. Normally in such an instance where a transgression is judged to have been made, a stop-go penalty is handed out, but as the drama happened with two laps left of the race the stewards added 25 seconds to Hamilton's race time - dropping him behind championship rival Felipe Massa's Ferrari and the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.

The decision has been lambasted by much of the Formula One fraternity, with the former world champion Niki Lauda lamenting: "It is absolutely unacceptable when three [stewards] influence the championship like this." To this pair of eyes the decision looked harsh. What it came down to is that while Hamilton did back off and allow Raikkonen through after cutting the Bus Stop chicane, he stayed close enough to the back of the Ferrari to re-pass his rival at the next corner.

What the stewards would have looked at is that if Hamilton had not cut the corner and backed off he would not have been in a position to pass Raikkonen at La Source. In hindsight if Hamilton had stayed behind the Ferrari through La Source he probably would not have been punished as he would have had no visible benefit. The Briton felt he had done enough to show nothing had been gained by him missing the corner, but unfortunately that was not enough to escape punishment.

The verdict is a bitter pill for Hamilton and McLaren to swallow and it will be a massive effort for them to bounce back in time for this Sunday's race in Italy. Hamilton has received penalties in Malaysia (blocking in qualifying), Canada (causing an accident in the pitlane), France (missing a corner and gaining an advantage) and now in Belgium this season. While driving into the back of Raikkonen in the pitlane in Montreal deserved sanctioning, the other punishments were all controversial.

Considering that Ferrari and Massa were let off with just a fine at last month's European Grand Prix after the Italian team released the Brazilian from his pit-box straight into the path of Adrian Sutil's Force India, an offence where in other races stop-go penalties had been handed out, and you can understand why McLaren are a little miffed at present. Barring an appeal turning things around, which is unlikely, the championship race has now been blown wide open with Massa now only two points adrift of Hamilton rather than eight.

Massa is undeniably a lucky man as he had given a rather lacklustre performance at Spa-Francorchamps. He was too tentative at the start and was never on the pace of his teammate Raikkonen or Hamilton. But the pressure is now on Hamilton. He needs a decent points lead to take to the final race in Brazil in November. He will not want to have to beat Massa on the track there, as the Brazilian is a mighty force at Interlagos.

So Hamilton is somehow going to have to put this controversy behind him and shine in Italy on Sunday. @Email:gcaygill@thenational.ae