No penalty for Hamilton

Stewards at Shanghai have decided that no penalty needed to be applied to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton after he was investigated in regard to an incident that happened behind the safety car during the Japanese GP. The 10 place grid demotion penalty awarded to Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel for the same incident has been annulled.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Vettel hit Mark Webber's Red Bull and sent them both out of the race last weekend and he claimed he had been distracted by Hamilton slowing unexpectedly. Vettel was initially held responsible and given the penalty but this weekend Webber criticized Hamilton's driving, saying it had contributed to Vettel hitting him.

All three drivers were called to face the stewards after new video evidence of the incident was presented and it was decided that, given the appalling conditions during the Fuji race, it was not appropriate to award any sanctions. Vettel's grid demotion was retracted and the young German was given a reprimand instead.

The ruling came after Hamilton had apparently implied that he would not stay in F1 if he was unfairly punished. The British rookie expressed discontent and confusion about why he was being blamed for the Fuji accident and said this year there had been some "strange situations" where he was "made to look the bad person".

"It looks like this weekend I'm probably going to given a penalty and I think it's just a shame for the sport. If this is the way it's going to keep going then it's probably not somewhere that I want to be," he told reporters at Shanghai. Hamilton, who's amazing first season has bought many new fans to F1, can become the first ever rookie champion on Sunday.