Domenicali's post-Belgian Grand Prix story

Stefano Domenicali was cautious in his appraisal of the stewards' decision following Lewis Hamilton's 25s penalty after the Belgian Grand Prix. The McLaren-Mercedes driver overtook Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen at the final chicane by short-cutting it, and although he eased up to let Raikkonen past again, he was found to be in breach of the sporting regulations and given a 25s penalty, added to his race time which dropped him from winner to third place, handing victory to Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

McLaren later gave notice of appeal against the stewards' decision.

"We are not used to commenting on decisions," said Domenicali later. "The only thing I would say is that as soon as we had been summoned by the stewards, we gave our position to the stewards and that was it. Then for sure the stewards listened to the Hamilton argument, and that was the decision. We don't want to make any further comment."

Domenicali pointed out that Ferrari had nothing to do with the lodging of the protest. "We were simply summoned by the stewards at the end of the race," he said, before adding that it was only about the manoeuvre at the last chicane."

However, Domenicali did say that privately he thought "it was a little bit extreme. It's normal that when you attack you are racing but the problem is the advantage that may be taken by doing a manoeuvre like this and this is the key point of it. I think that that's the focus that has to be considered."

And Domenicali was also quick to praise Raikkonen who had been so quick before the rain at the end of the race. "It was really a shame that he was not able to finish because he drove a fantastic race. He was pushing hard as you can see from his lap times, and then he found it a little bit more difficult on the last set of hard tyres on which he was not able to push as hard as he wanted, and of course at the end, it was really difficult because he went off. But it was good to see that he is very motivated and he's pushing as hard as he can."

Before notice of appeal had been given, Domenicali was asked if the team would still give equal opportunity to its drivers for the championship. "We will take the decision in the interests of the team. In my view, the situation that we have now is something that we need to think about in no hurry because it's something that is part of our approach to the races. When and if we feel that it's the right time, we are going to do it.

"This result is something that opens up the championship in a different way but it doesn't mean that we will change our approach. As I said, it will be very tough, but at least we are leading one of the two championships and we are very close in the other."

But with the Italian Grand Prix just one week away, the team's concentration is on that race, says Domenicali. "There are so many events that we take back home, what we have to do to prepare for Monza in the right way. This is the main target that we need to be focused on in the next few days.

"Monza, for us, is not really the ideal track, as much as anything because we are not expecting really high temperatures. So the only thing we can do is really to try to work very very hard, because we know that McLaren is very very strong above all in Monza, but not only there as we can see.

"Yesterday we were very impressed by their performance in qualifying. To be honest, that shows how tense the championship is, how close it will be to the end. We know that they are very strong, and we cannot give up for a second. Today, there was another lesson. You really need to wait. We always said that but today it was really obvious: you have to wait not only to the end of the race but also afterwards. That shows that really the situation is very complicated."

One cause for concern which was highlighted in Belgium was the performance on harder tyres. "For sure it's something that we need to work on a lot," concluded Domenicali, "because we will have the same kind of tyres in Monza and this is something that can be a crucial element that will make the difference in the performance of the car at Monza."