Lewis Hamilton disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton is stripped of his third place earned at the Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2009 season. The reigning world champion and his team were found guilty of providing misleading evidence after a FIA hearing at the Sepang circuit.

The British driver had finished fourth on Sunday but was promoted to third place after Jarno Trulli was handed a 25-second penalty at the finish for an overtaking maneuver while the safety car was on track.

However, after the discovery of new evidence such as the radio transmissions from the Toyota and McLaren teams, the race stewards summoned Trulli and Hamilton to a new hearing in Malaysia to discuss the matter.

The audio conversations contradict the original statements presented by Hamilton and McLaren.

According to a statement released by the track marshals: « The stewards, after reviewing the new evidence presented to them since the Australian Grand Prix, consider that driver No. 1, Lewis Hamilton of Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes, acted in a manner detrimental to the conduct of the event by providing deliberately misleading evidence to the stewards at the hearing on Sunday, March 29, 2009. This is a violation of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code. »

« Pursuant to Article 158 of the International Sporting Code, driver No. 1 Lewis Hamilton is disqualified from the race and scores no points for this race in the 2009 standings. The results are amended accordingly. »

Following this decision regarding Hamilton, the race stewards have overturned the penalty against Trulli. He thus regains third place at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and has 6 points in the drivers’ championship. As a result, Toyota now has 11 points in the constructors’ standings, in second place behind Brawn GP.