Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton’ Mercedes for the finish that won him the title once a late safety car.
Mercedes argued race director Michael Masi failed to apply the foundations correctly.
The team have lodged an intention to charm against the choice regarding restarting the race for the ultimate lap.
Officials aforementioned different rules gave Masi the facility to act as he did.
Mercedes’ second attractiveness was over Red Bull’s Verstappen nosing before Hamilton many times on the lap before the restart. They do not desire to appeal against that matter.
BREAKING: The FIA Stewards have dismissed Mercedes' protests against the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix final classification #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/VPNIfaFDMC
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What was the commotion about?
The main difference arose over the approach Masi handled the choice to restart the race at the beginning of the ultimate lap.
Whoever won the race would win the title, and Hamilton had dominated throughout when passing Verstappen at the start and being allowed to stay the lead despite cutting the chicane when Verstappen tried to pass him back, on the grounds Hamilton had been forced off the track.
When Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed with five laps to go, the safety automobile was deployed, and Verstappen pitted for brand spanking new tyres. Hamilton couldn’t. As a result of he would have lost the lead.
It placed Verstappen right behind Hamilton on abundant fresher, grippier tyres, and therefore the Netherlander passed Hamilton on the ultimate lap.
What made it controversial?
At restarts, once safety-car periods, lapped cars are ordinarily allowed to pass the leaders and un-lap themselves so that they don’t interfere with the race.
Masi allowed the drivers between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass them, giving Verstappen a transparent run at his rival. However, it didn’t do identical to the cars between Verstappen and third-placed Michael Assat Sainz’ Ferrari.
Article 48.12 of the sporting laws says: “If the clerk of the course considers it safe to try and do so, and therefore the message ‘lapped cars could currently overtake’ has been sent to any or all competitors via the official electronic communication system, any cars that are lapped by the leader are going to be needed to pass the cars on the lead lap and the protection car.”
At a similar time, article 48.12 of the sporting regulations says that “once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car can come back to the pits at the top of the subsequent lap”. The race was started at the top of a similar lap during this case.
Had each rule been applied this way, Mercedes argued, Hamilton would have won the race.
The stewards dominated that a separate rule gave Masi the ability to manage the safe automobile, which “includes its readying and withdrawal”.
They added: “Although article 48.12 might not are applied fully, concerning the safety car returning to the pits at the tip of the subsequent lap, article 48.13 overrides that and once the message ‘safety car in this lap’ has been displayed, it’s obligatory to withdraw the safety car at the end of that lap.
They were supplemental that Mercedes’ request to remedy the matter by amending the result by taking the positions at the tip of the penultimate lap “is a step that the stewards believe is effectively shortening the race retrospectively, and thence not appropriate”.
