I don`t get it why Schumi and Vettel did not run another fast round?
Preserving tires?

Well...Hamilton deserves the Pole position..now bring home that victory and it`s all good

 

^Not setting a timed lap allows them to choose whichever tire they want, which could be pretty advantageous in the race.

 

oh,..ok

thanks for the info!

But I`m not quite sure if this advantage is worth taking the disadvantage of a bad starting spot at such a track...

 

I don't think they had much of a choice, as their cars didn't have the pace to challenge for the front row. Since they had no chance of running in clear air, they might as well try get a tire advantage.

 

Hamilton stripped of pole position
AFP
Saturday, May 12, 2012 - 1:53 PM
Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton will start at the back of the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after stewards ruled he was under-fuelled for his final run.


Pastor Maldonado, who finished second in qualifying for Williams, will now start from pole position, his first in Formula One.

Hamilton blew the field away with his final effort - a 1:21.707 - which was almost six-tenths clear of his nearest challenger.

But having completed the lap he was instructed by his team to pull up on the track, with his race engineer suggesting over the radio there was a technical problem with the car.

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh had subsequently confirmed that Hamilton only had 1.3 litres of fuel left in the tank when the Brit parked on the Circuit de Catalunya, meaning that the McLaren did not have enough to return to the pits and provide a full one litre fuel sample as stipulated by the FIA rules.

However, Whitmarsh had also added that he felt a technical issue exonerated McLaren.

"There was enough fuel to take a fuel sample," Whitmarsh said. "But we stopped the car, we're now talking to the stewards about that, but there was 1.3 litres of fuel taken out of the car. The regulations are you have to do that [in] lap unless there is a force majeure. That's the discussion that will probably happen. If it's considered to be force majeure then it's OK."

"It was technical. It's not for me to decide, but I would believe it to be force majeure. Now it's for the stewards to decide."

The rules on under-fuelling were reviewed and strengthened after a similar incident involving Hamilton at the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix. On that occasion Hamilton was reprimanded and his team fined $10,000.

More to follow

 

Sad to see as it doesn't look like this was in any way Hamilton's fault, but I cannot say I am surprised.

It seems like McLaren realized they under fueled him, lied to the stewards about it, and were caught out.

 

The driver should not be penalized for team's mistake. They should just have excluded the last laptime where he was on low fuel, or even harsher exclude all the Q3 laptimes. But no reason for him to start lower than 10th.

FIA is manipulating the race once again.

 

Already figured something was up when Hamilton was brought into the pits and one of his team members ran up to him and whispered into his ear to probably STFU.

 

I thought the same also when's I saw that!

 

I want to agree, and as a massive Hamilton fan, I feel that the FIA should've just stripped McLaren on HAM's constructer's points for this race.

However, a rule is a rule. Hamilton's car, whether he stopped or made it back, was underfuelled and therefore breached Article 6.6.2, so this was pretty cut and dried.

At least tomorrow's race has the potential to be a Hollywood movie now.