According to the FIA, McLaren misled the stewards

The FIA wanted to emphasize that McLaren and Lewis Hamilton deliberately misled the Board of Directors during a meeting with the race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was stripped of his third place in Melbourne while Jarno Trulli was reinstated to it. The FIA stated that the Italian was unfairly penalized for overtaking Hamilton behind the safety car.

Earlier, Hamilton and Trulli were summoned by the stewards. As a reminder, the Toyota driver had been penalized by 25 seconds.

Today, the McLaren team and Martin Whitmarsh claimed that they did not lie to the stewards.

However, the FIA believes that Hamilton and David Ryan, the team manager, were not completely honest about what happened during the race.

During the hearing, which took place about an hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the race director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his race director specifically about an instruction given to Hamilton to overtake Trulli, the FIA stated via a declaration.

« The driver and the team manager stated that no such instructions had been given. »

« The race director then asked Hamilton if he had been authorized to overtake Trulli. Hamilton clearly said ‘no’. »

Finally, the FIA added that the radio communications and a post-race interview clearly showed that McLaren had instructed its driver to overtake Trulli.