In the closing stages of Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton passed Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen to take the lead. The only problem was that Hamilton cut a corner to do so. Replays showed that in the white-knuckled racing that was going on, Räikkönen forced him out of the corner. According to the rules, any driver who gains position(s) by cutting a corner is to relinquish those positions and continue racing; no harm, no foul. That is exactly what Hamilton did; Räikkönen regained his position and crossed the start-finish line ahead of Hamilton, even going faster than Hamilton, who subsequently passed him again at the first corner. Räikkönen eventually crashed, and wasn't a factor in the finish of the race...well, he wasn't supposed to be.

The race stewards penalized Hamilton by adding an additional 25 seconds to his final race time. That penalty changed his finishing position from first to third, effectively handing the win to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who, incidentally, is Hamilton's leading contender for the Driver's Championship.

Now, Hamilton leads the championship standing by 2 points, 76 to Massa's 74. Had the original results stood, that margin would have been 80 to 72.

I have said before that I believe Ferrari is Formula 1's darling team, and in being as much, they would do anything to protect and promote Ferrari, whether it be overlooking rules or taking any advantage away from other teams. So, a situation presents itself where the rules can be re-interpreted to favor Ferrari, and Formula 1 is going to pounce on it. Which leads us to how things went the way they did Sunday.

So, after the cut-corner pass and relinquishing of position, McLaren asked Race Control if they were comfortable with what happened, and they responded that they were okay with it. Then, three hours later, the stewards reverse that decision. Can officials change their mind? Sure. But why do it in clear opposition to video and telemetric evidence showing that what happened on the track was done in accordance with the rules? Why do it when the one who was passed and received the position back crashed out of the race mere minutes later? Only because the Ferrari in contention for the driver's championship finished second to the championship leader, or so goes my conspiracy theory.

Thankfully, McLaren are appealing the steward's decision:

McLaren confirmed on Tuesday that they have lodged an appeal against the penalty handed to driver Lewis Hamilton following Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton was given a 25-second time penalty by race stewards at Spa-Francorchamps, after they decided he had gained an advantage by cutting a chicane during his late battle with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
"Following our decision to register our intention to appeal the penalty handed out to Lewis Hamilton by the FIA Stewards at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, we hereby confirm that we have now lodged notice of appeal," explained McLaren's Formula One CEO Martin Whitmarsh in a statement released by the British squad.

Right now, I think the best thing that could happen to Formula 1 is for Ferrari to become a mid- or low-tier team.