Not for the first time in Formula 1, a mid-race stewarding decision took an especially long time to be handed out during this year's European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Lewis Hamilton received a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car during the race. He was handed the penalty on lap 25, despite making the error on lap 9.

This should have been a cut and dried call, and we learned that the stewards were made aware of the issue soon after the event had occurred. It still took the powers that be over 20 minutes to reach the correct conclusion, much to the dismay of the chasing Fernando Alonso and the Ferrari team.

As a result of the delay Lewis Hamilton had made enough of a gap on his rivals, and took his drive through penalty without losing a single position.

The question is, do you think stewards could and should have reacted sooner and if so, what can be done to speed up the process? Do let us know in the comments and vote below.

For the record, this week's nominated driver representative was Heinz-Harald Frentzen.