F1: stewards bring themselves into disrepute with late, results changing, penalties

The ridiculous situation began on the first lap of the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix. The chicane, as expected, proved a potentially dangerous bottleneck on the first lap of a track where visibility and run-off are both limited.

Sutil and Hulkenberg were both forced wide, both took evasive action and both regained the track.

That, the stewards decided after the race, had gained Sutil an advantage and therefore added 20 seconds to his time. That cost him three points and dropped him to equal points but one place behind Michael Schumacher in the driver's championship. Sutil had finished eighth but the penalty dropped him to tenth.

But the drama was not over. Force India, Sutil's team, complained: it was a race, there were cars all over the place, other cars including Hulkenberg went off in similar circumstances. The stewards took this as a protest not a defence and promptly reviewed Hulkenberg's lap, penalising him in the same way. that dropped him from ninth to tenth and that promoted Sutil to ninth.

The winner in all of this? Ferrari's Felipe Massa who was not in any way disadvantaged by the incidents: he trolled around after the field intending to make a stop after one or two laps and run to the end on one set of hard tyres. So he lucked into ninth place having finished tenth, gaining extra points for Ferrari which are chasing McLaren and Red Bull for the constructors' championship.

There was absolutely no excuse for delay in deciding on whether a penalty should have been awarded. The Stewards say they wanted to hear evidence from the parties concerned but there is ample video evidence: they are supposed to be akin to referees not a court. The race lasted two and a half minutes short of three hours: the incidents in the first minute.

Whilst not smacking of a Nelson Piquet Jr conspiracy, it does make the result look decidedly odd.

And, just out of interest, did Hamilton return to his car and put the wheel back on? After his crash, he threw the wheel from the car; stamped around (including inside the car which is no mean trick in such a tiny space) and - despite a marshal holding the wheel out to him, walked away. That's supposed to be an automatic penalty. Perhaps he did go back: he did not immediately get onto the scooter that took him back to the paddock.