McLaren protest thrown out

(13-Jul-98) - McLaren's protest over German Michael Schumacher's victory in
the British Grand Prix was thrown out by the race stewards on Sunday night,
three and a half hours after the race finished.

McLaren had claimed that Schumacher should have taken his stop-go penalty
for overtaking under yellows within three laps of the incident occuring.
Instead, Schumacher waited until the final lap before diving into the
Ferrari pits.

But after deliberation the stewards rejected McLaren's protest and instead
withdrew the penalty on Schumacher because they had informed the Ferrari
team more than the mandatory 25 minutes after the incident.

A stewards statement read, "The notification was not displayed on the
timing monitors."

"Under the circumstances the time penalty imposed cannot apply and is
therefore rescinded. The results are amended accordingly."

It now means that Schumacher's winning margin over Mika Hakkinen was 22.465
second, not 12.465 seconds.

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