I'm following a car, maybe 0.5 seconds behind. He takes the next corner perfectly but I go wide outside track limits. I pick up a small time penalty but more importantly I am now carrying enough momentum to take a run at him and overtake him. I then 'spend' the time penalty harmlessly at the next corner - and I've gained a place for the bargain price of 1 incident point (and perhaps my soul). To alleviate this, how about we have to give back any places gained while carrying a slow-down penalty?