At think Schumi should have been relegated back to the place behind Alonso not given a 20 sec penality.

I think your right, maybe that's what will happen at the appeal hearing..... (I did say maybe )

I looked into this a bit more and although the rule states the safety car will pull in on the last lap for the cars to cross the chequered flag (albeit without overtaking) why did the SC / yellow flags not stay out? By removing SC conditions and waving green that would suggest racing is back on no? If SC conditions were still present - although safety car pulled in to allow F1 cars over the line - then the relevent flags and warnings should have stayed in place IMO.

I was just saying exactly the same thing to a friend this morning.

If SC conditions were in place to the end of the race then even though the SC pulled in (as per the rules) the flags should have stayed yellow.

I think for this reason Schumi might have a case

Also, given the fact that everyone RACED to the finish line suggests that they were under green flags and not finishing the race under SC conditions.

Had Alonso and the rest of them formed an orderly queue to the finish line then maybe it would be different, but they didn't.

I think the deciding factor will be whether there was a "Safety car in this lap" message sent to the teams, and what the status of the SC's lights were on that final lap as to whether the race was finished under green or yellow conditions.

Ross Brawn had print outs in his hands after the race showing Michael behind Alonso with both their front wheels over the SC line and green lights on the track.

Also, to quote Schumacher, "The message was 'safety car in, track clear,' if that's given then its racing".

Seems to me like the appeal might win.

Been reading some interesting comments.

I think I agree with most of them that the only mistake made was by the stewards/race controller/marshals/etc...

They shouldn't have gone back to green lights and the message "Track Clear" shouldn't have been broadcast.

Due to these 2 errors they have wrongly taken the SC in on the last lap and gone back to racing conditions. They should have pulled the car in with a clear message that yellow lights and SC conditions would still be in play to the finish line.

As this didn't happen they can't punish Schumi for overtaking. IMO.

LOL, another post

I think the question that needs to be asked is not whether Schumi broke the rule stated in article 40.13 but whether or not article 40.13 is relevant to this race.

Was it just me or was that the most BORING race so far this season?

Whoever got to the 1st corner in the lead wins as overtaking very hard/impossible.

Why do they bother to "race" there?

I agree that the race at the front was fairly boring but that's not the whole race. Surely the mid field race can be exciting on its own?

Exactly. Does the rule apply given that green flag conditions were returned?

I've got the highlights recoreded so will study tonight to see if 'SC' was next to the lap counter or the Lap counter was yellow when the SC pulled in..... Unless someone has already looked?

The lights did go out on the SC before it pitted.