Australia 2009: Trulli Under Investigation, Hamilton May Get Promoted

In the madness of the second safety car period during the Australian Grand Prix, it seems the reason why Jarno Trulli made it into third as opposed to Lewis Hamilton as we had been expecting was down to an incident involving Trulli. Both drivers have been summoned to the race stewards office to discuss the incident, which saw Trulli re-pass Hamilton under the safety car period. If the stewards deem Trulli to be in the wrong, Hamilton would be promoted to third and Trulli down the finishing order.

At the end, under the safety car, Trulli fell off onto the grass and Lewis had no choice but to go past him, he was not on the racing circuit. Trulli then re-took the place under the safety car, which ordinarily you wouldn’t do so I know that the FIA are looking at it at the moment and doubtless we’ll have a ruling in due course.

That’s our position at the moment and we will see what happens in the coming hours. Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren.

Typically, when a driver is found to have impeded the safety car rules after a race has been concluded, a time penalty is added to the final finishing time of the penalised driver, which in this case is Jarno Trulli. Adding just five seconds would demote Trulli to sixth, although it would also promote his team mate up to fourth. Adding ten seconds to Trulli’s finishing time would put the Italian plum last of all who completed the race on the leaders lap, which is twelfth place and all thanks to the safety car period at the very end.

Once a decision has been reported I will post. For now, I think I’ll leave the Championship Standings alone as this issue will impact both championships considerably.