Penalties pretty much ruin McLaren's French GP

PAUL LOGOTHETIS

The Associated Press

Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2008

MAGNY COURS, France - McLaren came away from the French Grand Prix feeling mistreated by Formula One's governing body after a series of penalties.

Team principal Ron Dennis did little to dismiss suggestions that FIA was picking on the British team.

"You can draw your own conclusions," Dennis told reporters Sunday after Lewis Hamilton was penalized for a pass. The 23-year-old Briton finished 10th after starting the race with a 10-place penalty on the grid because he caused an accident at the preceding Canadian GP.

Hamilton, trying to move up into the points from 13th, passed Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel at the third corner and got as high as ninth but his impatience earned a drive-through penalty because he cut across a chicane in the maneuver.

"You can keep on giving me penalties, do whatever you want to do and I'll keep battling and I'll keep trying to come back with a result," Hamilton said. "We're going to focus on the next race and we're going to hit them hard."

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh thought Hamilton had completed the pass properly.

"We thought he was by the car at that point and that he'd be OK," said Whitmarsh, brushing aside questions about any FIA grudge.

"I don't think there's any point in speculating on that. A penalty was given."

FIA president Max Mosley and Dennis have never seen eye-to-eye, especially after last year when McLaren was fined $100 million for possessing confidential Ferrari documents. Renault, meanwhile, wasn't fined after also getting caught with Ferrari papers.

Hamilton failed to finish in the points in consecutive races for the first time in his 25-race career. He now trails overall Formula One leader and French GP champion Felipe Massa of Ferrari by 10 points with 10 races left.

"I don't care how far I am behind, Kimi (Raikkonen) was 17 points behind with two races to go (last year) and he still won it. If I'm 20 points behind I don't care, I will still come back," said an agitated Hamilton, who finished runner-up to Raikkonen last year. "I am going to keep battling, and there is a long way to go."

Heikki Kovalainen at least gave the team a fourth-place finish.

The Finn started 10th after being penalized five places for hindering Mark Webber's qualifying lap, but rallied to finish 0.7 seconds off the podium. Both McLaren drivers were penalized for the same infraction at the Malaysian GP earlier this year.

"This was a very good result," Kovalainen said.

Dennis called it "a challenging weekend," but hoped the team would bounce back at the British GP.

"We must draw a line under this weekend and look ahead," he said.

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