Felipe Massa has been declared the official winner of the Belgian grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps, after stewards penalised Lewis Hamilton.
25 seconds were retrospectively added to the British championship leader’s finishing time, meaning his victory at the chequered flag now becomes third place, behind the Ferrari and also BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.
The amended result also means 23-year-old Hamilton’s lead in the drivers’ standings is reduced from a potential 8 to just 2 points with five races to go in 2008.
Stewards deemed Hamilton did not properly allow Kimi Raikkonen to re-pass after overtaking the Ferrari driver by cutting the Bus Stop chicane with 3 laps to go.
Hamilton did let the Finn pass him after the chicane, but he then used the slipstream of the Ferrari to immediately launch a successful overtaking move at the next corner.
Stewards also gave Toyota’s Timo Glock a 25 second time penalty for overtaking the Red Bull of Mark Webber under yellow flags, which were waving in the wake of Raikkonen’s race-ending crash.
The penalty promoted Webber back into to eighth place.
