Protest Denied, Mercedes Cannot Appeal Verstappen's Victory

Lewis Hamilton (Instagram @lewishamilton)

JAKARTA - Mercedes cannot appeal against Max Verstappen's victory as the new world champion after race supervisors rejected a protest by the team after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race on Sunday.

Red Bull's Verstappen overtook Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in a controversial final lap to win the Abu Dhabi GP and claim his first world title.

Mercedes, securing the constructors' title for the eighth year in a row, protested over two alleged violations of sporting regulations when the safety car was ejected at the end of the race.

Quoted from Antara, an official statement from the stewards said Mercedes protested "against the classification at the end of the competition", on the pretext of a violation of article 48.12.

Verstappen found a number of drivers in rear position between him and Hamilton after the pits when the safety car was ejected in the last four laps.

Race director Michael Masi decided that only the five back-seat cars between the two title-challenging drivers would be allowed to escape from the safety car, rather than all of the cars being overlapped as is normal procedure.

In their second protest, Mercedes also argued that article 48.8 was violated when Verstappen's car moved ahead of Hamilton's as he waited impatiently to continue racing on the final lap following the end of the safety car period.

Mercedes called it an illegal overtake.

Steward found Verstappen's car was in front of Hamilton when both accelerated and braked but was not in front when the safety car period ended.

Mercedes, accompanied by a team of lawyers meeting the stewards, argued that Hamilton could win if the rules regarding overlapping cars were obeyed and asked for the result to be changed to the driver's position on the final lap.

Steward considered it inappropriate to cut the race.

They realized that while the regulations were not fully enforced, other articles allowed race directors to control the use of safety cars.