Formula One news

Slow penalty decision cost Hamilton win - Whitmarsh

Lewis Hamilton could have won the Singapore Grand Prix had the safety car and subsequent penalties given out by stewards been more efficient, according to McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

"The current Safety Car deployment rule can cause some drivers to be disadvantaged relative to some of their rivals," Whitmarsh said. "To that extent, it's a bit of a lottery, but it's one of those variables that tends to even-out over the course of a season: sometimes you benefit from the Safety Car's deployment, other times you don't."

"What made the situation a bit more unfortunate for Lewis in Singapore was the time taken for the stop-go penalties to be applied to those drivers who had refuelled under the Safety Car," he added. "Nico was able to get the hammer down out in front while the stewards were coming to their decision - which effectively neutered his eventual stop-go penalty."

"With hindsight, I guess we could have brought Lewis in for fuel and tyres at the same time as Williams brought Nico in," Whitmarsh went on. "And had we done so, Lewis would very possibly have won the race. But, in truth, you can't second-guess things like that, and we brought Lewis in as soon as the rules allowed, in good faith. Also, to be fair to the stewards, they had a lot to think about at the time."

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