WOKING, England (AP):

MCLAREN HAVE appealed the time penalty that cost Lewis Hamilton victory in the Belgian F1 Grand Prix.

Race stewards penalised Hamilton 25 seconds for cutting across a chicane to overtake then-leader Kimi Raikkonen during the closing stages of Sunday's race. Hamilton re-emerged on to the track and allowed the Ferrari driver back into the lead before overtaking for good.

"From the pit wall, we then asked race control to confirm that they were comfortable that Lewis had allowed Kimi to re-pass, and they confirmed twice that they believed that the position had been given back in a manner that was 'Okay,"' McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said yesterday.

"If race control had instead expressed any concern regarding Lewis' actions at that time, we would have instructed Lewis to allow Kimi to re-pass for a second time."

The appeal will now be heard by FIA's International Court of Appeal, although it was unclear when that hearing would take place.

Hamilton was pushed down to third place and Felipe Massa of Ferrari upgraded to first. Instead of an eight-point edge, Hamilton still retains the lead but only by a slender 76-74 margin with 50 more points at stake in the remaining five races. The next race is Sunday's Italian GP.

Hamilton said he had no choice but to go off-course to avoid a collision.

"After allowing Kimi to completely re-pass, I crossed from the left side of the track to the right side of the track, passing behind Kimi in the process," Hamilton said. "I then attacked Kimi on the inside of the first corner, and successfully outbraked him."