bobby

Trulli's 3rd taken away......

The Toyota Formula One team announced Wednesday that it has decided not to appeal the penalty that robbed driver Jarno Trulli of a third-place finish in last weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

After the podium ceremony, FIA stewards added 25 seconds to Trulli's total time for the race because the Italian went off the road during a safety-car period and then passed McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton--while the race was still under caution--to reclaim his position.

Trulli claimed that he had no choice but to pass Hamilton, as the McLaren ace--also apparently confused about the rules in such a scenario--slowed down drastically and pulled over to let Trulli by, to the point that Trulli said he thought Hamilton's car had a problem.

However, ignorance of the rules is apparently no excuse, as race officials effectively promoted Hamilton to third place after the race.

Toyota said in the aftermath of the decision that it wanted to appeal the outcome; however, a review of F1 regulations has caused the team to withdraw its intent to appeal, as such judgments by race stewards can’t be appealed.

McLaren and Hamilton fell victim to the same rule last year in Belgium. Officials penalized Hamilton for passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen after Hamilton cut a chicane preceding the corner in which he passed Raikkonen. The FIA deemed McLaren's appeal of the decision invalid

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