The FIA, the sport's governing body, has announced that McLaren's actions during the Monaco Grand Prix were "entirely legitimate" after investigating whether the team had breached article 151c of the Sporting Code.
McLaren team principal Ron Dennis admitted after the race that his team had instructed its drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to ease off and protect the team's second 1-2 result of the season rather than risk retirement by racing each other to the finish.
In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, the FIA cleared McLaren of any wrong-doing in Sunday's race after it's actions had prompted a back-lash in the British press.
"Having studied the radio traffic between Vodafone McLaren Mercedes (McLaren) and its drivers, together with the FIA observer's report and data from the team, it is clear that McLaren's actions during the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix were entirely legitimate and no further action is necessary," it read.
In setting out the reasoning behind its decision, the FIA drew attention to the fact that Alonso and Hamilton were on different fuel strategies because of the high likelihood of a safety car deployment.
"It is clear from FIA measurements taken after qualifying that McLaren fuelled Hamilton for five more laps than Alonso," the statement continued.
"This allowed Hamilton the option of a one-stop strategy should the safety car have come out during his first stint."
The FIA said McLaren's decision to pit Hamilton earlier than planned was fully justified to insure against the danger that the Briton would be caught behind the safety car.
"With no safety car during Alonso's first stint, there was a small but finite risk that it would come out during the five laps before Hamilton had to refuel," the FIA said.
"This would have put him behind the field and at a significant disadvantage to any car on a full (as opposed to optional) one-stop strategy.
"For similar reasons Hamilton was called in early for his second pit stop, thus assuring his second place, with or without a safety car."
The governing body pointed out that the fact McLaren was unchallenged at the front of the field not only allowed it to pursue a conservative pit strategy, but made it entirely sensible to do so.
"Had the car in front of Hamilton not been his team-mate, McLaren might (probably would) have decided to risk the safety car and let Hamilton run for as long as his fuel load allowed in the hope that he would come out of the pits in the lead after one of his pit stops," the statement read.
"There is, however, no obligation on them to take this risk in order to overtake their own car.
"Indeed it would be foolish to do so."
Finally the FIA concluded that McLaren was perfectly entitled to take measures to ensure that both its cars made it to the finish.
"It is standard procedure for a team to tell its drivers to slow down when they have a substantial lead," the statement said.
"This is in order to minimise the risk of technical or other problems.
"It is also standard practice and entirely reasonable to ask the drivers not to put each other at risk.
"McLaren were able to pursue an optimum team strategy because they had a substantial advantage over all other cars."
The FIA's closing judgement on McLaren's actions was unambiguous: "They did nothing which could be described as interfering with the race result."
Source: ITV.com/F1
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