Anthony Hamilton refused to talk about the decision by stewards to penalise his son after the Belgian Grand Prix because he was so angry about a punishment that had wrecked what he said was one of Lewis Hamilton’s best race drives.

However, before the penalty was handed down, Hamilton Sr said that he had no doubt whatsoever that his son had not contravened the rules. He argued that Lewis had attacked Kimi Raikkonen at the Bus Stop chicane in the correct way and that if the race win was rescinded it would be Formula One’s loss, not his son’s.

“They can’t take it away from Lewis,” the elder Hamilton said. “They can take it away from Formula One, but they can’t take it away from us because we won the race. Politics is one thing; we’ve been bitten twice - or on a few occasions - by decisions by the stewards but, in this case, I thought what Lewis did was correct.

“He was in front when he went into the corner, he played safe, didn’t crash into Kimi, everybody came out safe. He gave up the position, and then he came back and overtook him. Do you want people to race or do you want people to just follow each other - this is Formula One isn’t it?

“The thing is Lewis is a racing driver. You can go out and trundle around and just bring some points home - that’s one thing. We want to win the championship and that’s a slight difference. Lewis didn’t do anything risky or anything dangerous. He thought, ‘I could have him,’ and he went for the move and it worked extremely well.”

Hamilton Sr saluted a drive that was among the very best his son has produced. He had shown a quality he learnt as a boy in go-karts - not giving up until the chequered flag. “It’s difficult to find superlatives really because every time Lewis goes out he seems to go one better,” he said.

Niki Lauda, the Austrian former world champion, said Lewis had driven brilliantly and had not contravened the rules. In Lauda’s opinion, Lewis had beaten Raikkonen fair and square while the Finn, he said, had “thrown the race away”.