FIA race director Charlie Whiting has hit back at suggestions that the stewards took too long to decide to penalise Fernando Alonso for illegally passing Robert Kubica.
Ferrari have been highly critical of the fact that it took the stewards nine laps to hand out their punishment on Alonso for going off the track to pass Kubica.
Alonso was given a drive-through penalty which curtailed any chance he had of a points finish, with the Spaniard eventually coming home in fourteenth place.
Speaking after the race team principal Stefano Domenicali expressed his unhappiness at the steward's decision.
"You can have a situation where immediately there is a possibility to give position back to a driver if you feel there is really an advantage to be gained, but we felt that was not the case, otherwise we would have done it," Domenicali exlpained
"As soon as we received the information that in the opinion of the stewards Fernando should have given back position to Robert, he was already very far behind and was really slowing down because he had a problem.
"We feel [the penalty] is very harsh," he added.
But Whiting has now contradicted the Italian's claims, indicating that Ferrari were immediately informed to allow Kubica to pass and at that stage the Pole was still in a position to do so, although he later slowed as a result of mechanical troubles that caused him to retire.
"We told Ferrari three times that in my opinion they should give the position back to Kubica," Whiting told Autosprint magazine.
"And we told them that immediately, right after the overtaking manoeuvre. On the radio, I suggested to them that if they exchange position again, there would be no need for the stewards to intervene.
"But they didn't do that and on the third communication they said that Kubica was by then too far back to let him regain the position.
"It's not true at all that the stewards took too long to decide. For us the facts were clear immediately: Alonso had gained an advantage by cutting the track," he added.
