F1: Hamilton's Melbourne result thrown out amid accusations of lying

Lewis Hamilton has been accused of lying, and his team of helping him. The Melbourne stewards took the extremely rare step of reconvening at the race after theirs - in this case Malaysia - and calling all the participants together.

There is no word as to why they did so - but it might all come down to a few words spoken to a reporter.

Hamilton told a reporter after the race that Trulli had gone off, and Hamilton had slipped through. His team, anxious to make sure he did not get a penalty for overtaking under the safety car told him (Hamilton) to let Trulli through so as to retake the position he had been in when the safety car came out.

However, when the case came before the stewards after the race, Hamilton and his team told the stewards that there was no instruction to overtake.

Trulli had said immediately after the event that Hamilton had slowed and, being right behind him and thinking he had a problem, Trulli had overtaken having no option but to do so.

The stewards took the black-and-white line that passing under the safety car is banned. Although Hamilton had done so, at the time Trulli was in the middle of an agricultural tour of the local grasslands. That was OK, and so Hamilton was pulled up to third and Trulli awarded a 25 second penalty dropping him to 12th.

But at some point, the stewards got hold of the pit-to-car voice tapes. They learned that the pit had told Hamilton not once but twice that he should let Trulli through.They called Hamilton back before them yesterday. They gave him a chance to correct his previous statement - but he stuck with the story that there were no instructions. Then the stewards played the tape.

And so, for bringing the sport into disrepute (actually, the specific event, not the sport as a whole) Hamilton was excluded from the Melbourne results - a fantastic drive coming to nothing, and a reputation severely tarnished.

In fact, Hamilton had no reason to let Trulli through - he could have finished third on the track and claimed the place. And had he admitted that he had instructions and therefore let Trulli, he would have at least retained fourth.

A series of stupid errors apparently compounded by trying to talk their way out of it - McLaren are on the back foot in terms of technology, now there are questions over race and driver management. Not the way to go.

But, as always, things are never totally as they seem.

The full tape shows that Hamilton was told to let Trulli through, and then told to hold position. "I've already let him through," Hamilton responded. Seemingly much of the blame for the original problems goes back to the pit wall. Listen to the tape here

But, being generous, "misleading" the stewards isn't a good thing to do.