Mercedes protests Verstappen and result of Abu Dhabi GP

Mercedes has lodged a protest versus Max Verstappen and the nomenclature of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix without Lewis Hamilton lost the drivers’ championship on the final lap.

Hamilton was leading comfortably when there was a late safety car period that unliable Verstappen to pit for soft tires and rejoin overdue a queue of lapped cars in second place. With little time surpassing the race could restart, race tenancy originally said no lapped cars would be unliable to overtake in order to indulge a racing lap to be completed, but later told the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass the safety car in order to let them fight on the final lap.

Verstappen put pressure on Hamilton waiting to restart and at one stage appeared to whet superiority of the Mercedes in the final sector surpassing the safety car line, while he then managed to overtake his rival on the final lap to secure his first championship in dramatic fashion.

Mercedes lodged two protests within the required 30 minutes without the race, with the first relating to Verstappen’s driving overdue the safety car, as the sporting regulations state “no suburbanite may overtake flipside car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the (safety car line) for the first time without the safety car has returned to the pits.”

The second protest relates to the way the race was restarted, as Article 39.12 states “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car,” or no cars are unliable to overtake.

Hamilton has not emerged from Mercedes to speak to the media since the race finished, while Verstappen has been doing all of the usual post-race world champion commitments.