Lewis Hamilton has the most wins in Formula 1 history, but there was one victory that he had taken away from him early in his career.
The 2008 World Championship featured a titanic battle between him and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. It was only Hamilton’s second year in F1 having come close to winning the title in 2007, and this time he was looking even stronger at the wheel of his McLaren.
Heading into the 13th round of the season, Hamilton was leading the Drivers’ Championship from Massa with 70 points compared to his 64 points. The Briton qualified on pole and led the opening laps, before he spun exiting La Source on the slippery track.
This enabled Raikkonen to take the lead, with the Finn wasting no time in opening up a three-second lead over Hamilton. The next two stints, Raikkonen would maintain his lead advantage before Hamilton began to close at the end with fresher tyres.
What would happen next would go down as one of the classic Spa battles in F1 as Hamilton and Raikkonen fought for the win.
Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen battle for the Belgian Grand Prix win
Heavy rain began to hit the track on Lap 41 of the race and Hamilton was able to close the gap to within a second of Raikkonen, who was struggling to maintain tyre temperatures.
Hamilton would attempt a move on Raikkonen into the Bus Stop chicane, but had to cut across the corner after the Ferrari driver outbraked himself and nearly caused a collision.
After rejoining ahead of Raikkonen, the McLaren driver gave up the position and let the Ferrari back into the lead briefly before re-passing at the La Source hairpin under braking.
Raikkonen would briefly overtake Hamilton at Fagnes as the pair avoided a spinning Nico Rosberg, but the Ferrari driver’s race would come to an end a couple of corners later after he spun into the barriers at Blanchimont in the wet conditions on dry tyres.
Hamilton cautiously drove the final lap of the race and crossed the line, appearing to take a valiant victory in the wet. But two hours after the race, the stewards found Hamilton guilty of contravening the F1 Sporting Regulations and International Sporting Code, which stated that cutting a chicane and gaining an advantage is subject to a drive-thru penalty.
The stewards issued a post-race 25-second time penalty for Hamilton, stripping him of his victory and relegating him to third place. Several in F1 denounced the decision, with former F1 world champion Niki Lauda branding it the “worst judgement in the history of F1” when speaking to RTL.
“It’s unbelievable how the best driver in yesterday’s race makes no mistakes and only gets six points,” said Lauda. “It’s absolutely unacceptable when three (stewards) influence the championship like this.”
McLaren complain and subsequent aftermath of 2008 Belgian Grand Prix
McLaren lodged a complaint with the FIA over the incident, having alleged that they had been informed twice by Race Director Charlie Whiting that Hamilton had correctly returned the position to Raikkonen.
Their lawyers also drew on a previous precedent with Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2007, where a steward allegedly admitted fault in giving the Italian a penalty for doing a similar action.
The Court of Appeal would rule that the appeal was inadmissible, with Massa remaining the winner while Hamilton was forced to give up his winner’s trophy.
The result put Hamilton on 76 points and just two away from Massa (74) and would play a crucial role in the events that led to their title showdown in Brazil later that year.