FIA to rule on McLaren appeal on September 22

Sep 12, 2008, 14:16 GMT

Paris - The court of appeal of the international motorsport federation FIA will rule on the appeal by the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team against the decision to penalise Lewis Hamilton after the Belgian Grand Prix on September 22 FIA said Friday.

FIA said that the appeal would be heard in Paris. They had earlier announced that they would hear the appeal ahead of the Grand Prix race in Singapore on September 28.

Hamilton won the race on Sunday's race at Spa but was later handed a 25-second penalty which demoted him to third place. Ferrari rival Felipe Massa was declared the winner.

Race stewards decided the British driver had gained an unfair advantage by cutting a chicane before overtaking Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen towards the end of the race.

McLaren said it was appealing on the grounds that Hamilton had immediately ceded the position back to Raikkonen.

Hamilton said in a statement released after being penalized that he had to cut the chicane to avoid a collision with Raikkonen.

'I came out of the second apex in front of Kimi and so I momentarily lifted-off on the straight, to ensure that Kimi got back in front,' he said.

'The team also came on the radio and instructed me to allow Kimi to re-pass, which I had already done. As a result, Kimi crossed the start/finish line ahead of me and 6.7km/h quicker than me.

'After allowing Kimi to completely re-pass, I crossed from the left side of the track to the right side of the track, passing behind Kimi in the process. I then attacked Kimi on the inside of the first corner, and successfully out-braked him.'

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said race control had twice confirmed during the manoeuvre that the position had been given back to Raikkonen 'in a manner that was 'OK'.'

He added: 'If race control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis's actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to re-pass for a second time.'