• European Grand Prix

'Hamilton is lucky', says Briatore

ESPNF1 Staff
June 29, 2010 « Domenicali happy to clarify testing rules | »
Flavio Briatore thinks Lewis Hamilton should have been disqualified © Getty Images
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Flavio Briatore says Lewis Hamilton should have been disqualified from Sunday's European Grand Prix for overtaking the safety car.

Despite conspiring to fix the 2008 Singapore grand prix by asking Nelson Piquet to crash deliberately, the former Renault boss agreed with Ferrari and Fernando Alonso that Hamilton's drive-through penalty was too lenient a punishment.

"The rules aren't precise," Briatore told Italy's Sky Sport 24. "You can't have a penalty for Hamilton after 20 laps, it should be (after) 2 or 3. Passing the safety car is more like a black flag penalty. Hamilton is lucky; everything he does turns out well."

Briatore, who was present at Sunday's European Grand Prix, also said he thinks that Ferrari have a lot of work to do if they are to challenge the two teams at the front.

"What is Ferrari missing? Speed; they are not on the level of Red Bull and McLaren."

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