Renault Hit at Hamilton's Warning in Malaysia

Renault expressed their frustration over the ruling of the Malaysian stewards regarding the race incident between their rookie driver Vitaly Petrov and the 2008 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, when the latter pulled off some 5 consecutive weaving maneuvers in straight line to prevent the former from passing him.

The battle between the two commenced a lap earlier, when Petrov made a rookie mistake and allowed Hamilton to pass him in the corner at the end of the main straight. However, the Russian driver soon gained control over the situation and passed Hamilton back, after which he struggled to keep the McLaren driver behind.

Then, at the end of the last straight heading towards the main one, the Brit overtook the Renault driver once again. From that point on, Petrov tried to trail the McLaren driver and pull off an overtaking maneuver of his own on the main straight, but his efforts were negated by Ham's weaving.

“According to the rules, drivers may only make one defensive move, and then another before the brazing zone to return to his racing line,” said a report from the GMM news agency. Nevertheless, the stewards only gave Hamilton a warning for the incident, whereas Renault insisted he should have gotten a full penalty for his actions.

“We have expressed our opinion (to the FIA). The warning was not enough,” said the team's boss Eric Boullier, according to Spain's AS newspaper.

“I don't know what Lewis was doing, weaving all over the track. I think he thought he was playing a PlayStation rather than real life,” added BBC radio's Anthony Davidson, former Grand Prix driver in F1.