Valenciagate scandal

The Valenciagate scandal is the name given to an on-track incident that occurred during the Formula 1 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. It took place on June 27 2010, during the race, and involved 15 out of 24 drivers on the track.
Timeline
Lap 8
In the battle for the 19th position between Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen, the Red Bull driver crashed into the Finnish at the turn 12, with the resulting accident requiring the deployment of the Safety Car and the medical car. Both drivers were uninjured in the accident, and Kovalainen said he was ashamed with Webber's attitude after the incident.
Lap 9
The Safety Car took to the circuit ahead of second-placed Lewis Hamilton, but behind race leader Sebastian Vettel. This meant that Vettel could complete his lap at racing speed, whilst Hamilton was forced to lap at a far slower pace. However, Hamilton passed the safety car shortly after crossing a white line near the pit exit that marks the point on the circuit where the safety car is to be considered on the circuit proper and competitors may not pass; Hamilton believed he was still behind the line at the time of the incident because the driver cannot physically see his own front wing, and therefore he would not be able to see the line. This action may be pubished by a black flag and disqualification, but there has never been a recorded example in the modern history of Formula 1 (Hamilton was, however, involved in a similar incident during a GP2 race at Imola in 2006). In passing the safety car, Hamilton was able to follow Vettel's suit in completing a lap at speed. However, the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were immediately behind the Hamilton at the time and thus forced to compelte a lap at low speed. Shortly after they completed their pit stops on lap eleven, Ferrari complained to FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting.
Mid-race
The immediate reaction of the other teams was to pit immediately, so that once the debris from the Webber-Kovalainen accident was cleared and racing resumed, Vettel and Hamilton kept their first and second places, but the Ferraris had been forced back down the order to eighth and ninth. Ten laps after the incident with the safety-car, the FIA stewards issues a dirve-through penalty to Hamilton, forcing the McLaren driver to enter pit lane and traverse it at a speed of one hundred kilometres per hour; pedestrian by Formula One standards. The relatively short Valencia pit lane combined with Hamilton's thirty-second lead over third-placed Kamui Kobayashi meant that aside from losing ground to race leader Vettel, Hamilton suffered no ill effect for his actions.
Both Alonso and the Ferrari pit wall were heard to complain vocally about this over the team radio, as they had expected to be racing Hamilton after the pit stops and penalties had been applied. The main point of contention was that the stewards had taken twenty minutes to pass judgement, and the delay meant that Hamilton escaped relatively unscathed. Charlie Whiting later claimed that aerial footage showing Hamilton passing the safety car just after they had crossed the white line was not immediately available to the stewards' panel, and that it had taken some time to acquire. Ferrari advised Alonso to continue racing and that they were looking after the situation. Shortly after this, nine drivers were placed under investigation by the stewards for speeding. The FIA rules state that in the event of a safety car deployment, there is a minimum lap time that drivers must complete, referred to as the "delta time". The nine cars were placed under investigation for having set a lap time faster than this delta time. Among them was reigning World Champion Jenson Button who claimed that the safety car was deployed as he was approaching pit lane; as he had spent the majority of the lap at racing speeds and the Webber-Kovalainen accident had occured behind him, he and McLaren argued that they were always going to be faster than the delta lap time through no fault of their own.
Post-race
The stewards penalised the nine offending drivers by adding five seconds to their overall race time, despite the rule book calling for a penalty of twenty-five seconds. The result of this was that Fernado Alonso, who had finished ninth, was classified ahead of the eighth-placed Sebastien Buemi as the Toro Rosso driver was one of the nine drivers penalised. Had the full twenty-five second penalty been imposed, Alonso would have been re-classified as fourth, and Felipe Massa as sixth. Ferrari lodged an official complaint against the stewards and the FIA, claiming that the race outcome had been manipulated by the stewards; the other teams rejected this idea. Lewis Hamilton later forgave Fernando Alonso for the outburst and claimed the two drivers had settled things amicably, but Ferrari president Luca di Motezemolo claimed that the sport's credibility had been hurt by the verdict. chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne commented that changes to the safety car regulations had created a series of conditions that were unaccounted for within the rules, and that the Valencia incident had strayed into this grey area.

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