yes that's why by going straight on he kept that position, hence the penalty. As for the french having it in for 'english speaking' drivers, martin brundle said the stewards had 3 options when imposing the penalty:if hamiltn had to brake to make the corner on the track, he would have been wide and slow, opening the possibility that he might have even lost a position.
1) drive through
2) 10 sec stop and go
3) 10 place penalty at next race.
the first one was more lenient (spelling??)