Trulli reinstated following further investigation
As the chequered flag flew Sunday evening in Melbourne, Jarno Trulli celebrated a fine third position after starting the 58-lap Australian Grand Prix from the pit lane.
The Italian veteran was later handed a 25 second penalty for allegedly overtaking Lewis Hamilton whilst behind the safety car, dropping the Toyota racer to 12th in the results.
Today stewards looked at ‘new evidence’ and concluded that Hamilton had deliberately misled the FIA delegates in Australia. Trulli is therefore reinstated to third position while defending champion Hamilton has been excluded from the results.
A statement issued by the stewards on Thursday evening confirmed that Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes "acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards."
The stewards said the conduct was in breach of the International Sporting Code.
The final finishing positions for the opening round of the season are; Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais.
FIA statement in full
At the first hearing following the Australian Grand Prix the Stewards did not have the benefit of the radio exchanges between driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and his Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes nor did they have access to the comments to the Media given by Lewis Hamilton immediately after the end of the race.
From the video recordings available to the Stewards during the hearing it appeared that Jarno Trulli’s car left the track and car No 1 moved into third place. It then appeared that Trulli overtook Hamilton to regain third place, which at the time was prohibited as it was during the Safety Car period.
During the hearing, held approximately one hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the Race Director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his Team Manager David Ryan specifically about whether there had been an instruction given to Hamilton to allow Trulli to overtake. Both the driver and the Team Manager stated that no such instruction had been given. The Race Director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so.
The new elements presented to the Stewards several days after the 2009 Australian Grand Prix which led to the reconvened Stewards Meeting clearly show that:
a. Immediately after the race and before Lewis Hamilton attended the Stewards Meeting he gave an interview to the Media where he clearly stated that the Team had told him to let Trulli pass.
b. Furthermore, the radio exchanges between the driver and the Team contain two explicit orders from the Team to let the Toyota pass.
The Stewards, having learned about the radio exchanges and the Media interview, felt strongly that they had been misled by the driver and his Team Manager which led to Jarno Trulli being unfairly penalised and Lewis Hamilton gaining third place.
Earl ALEXANDER / GMM
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