When Hamilton passed Trulli, Trulli was not on the track
something Trulli conspicuously did not mention in his
media statements. The reverse was not true.

I think Mclaren told him to cede because it they got
to bank the 4th place and leave only the increment to
3rd place in the lap of the FIA stewards. Having been punished so much (unfairly in SPA in my view) they
are likely pretty paranoid about unclear situations.

That doesn’t mean they think he was wrong, just that they thought there was a chance he could be punished
and wanted to bank what they had.

If Toyota thought Hamilton’s pass on Trulli was legal
as is implicit in Trulli’s description (I had a problem then he had a problem) why didn’t they get very very afraid when Hamilton pulled over and ceded the position but did *NOT* retire.

Mclaren were clearly worried about punishment even though Trulli went off track. Only reason for them to do that. It’s naive in the extreme of Toyota to accept the gift clearly given out of fear punishment, and then not be fearful yourself when the case is even weaker.

the reason you cannot appeal some decisions is because if there is a drive
through no-one can possibly know how to undo the effect of a drive
through after the race. Who knows who might or might not have overtaken
if the driver hadn’t been made to drive through?

For a straight time penalty it is clear and obvious how to undo it.

Perhaps all penalties should be time and not drive through to make this
clear. But perhaps not as if you are tailing a car under time penalty whether you
try to pass or not is affected by knowing if he has a time penalty that he might
appeal…

This is where the FIA’s anti-Mclaren precedent at SPA last year is now blowing
up on them. They ruled you can’t appeal a time penalty in place of a drive through, simply to make the SPA appeal go away. This ignored the reasons you cannot
appeal a drive through – the “it’s already happened can’t be undone” reason.

In Hamilton’s case in SPA it was very clear how to undo the time penalty, but they
abused the rules to interpret the time penalty as a drive through for the purposes
of appeal legalistics – and despite what Donelly’s predecessor set as precedent and
said in sworn statement (causing Whiting to perjure himself – if FIA sets itself up
as a court, why don’t we use the right terms for it…).

And now they are having to stick by their guns or be caught out in their bias.

It’s all very funny from a warped point of view, and I just feel sorry for Toyota
who have been sucked into the historical Mclaren witch hunt.

Firstly there’s both yellow flag and S/C conditions. Yellow flag came first.

SC is supposed to bunch up the cars in formation.

That means later cars have to faster than earlier cars or they won’t bunch!

It is also supposed to be “safe” and people shouldn’t be going off. Trulli robbed
himself, even if the punishment was harsh he made a mistake.