BREAKING | Verstappen retains P2 in Brazil after Mercedes' protest denied
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- GPblog.com
The incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton during the Brazilian Grand Prix was the talk of the week. Mercedes disagreed with the decision not to penalise Verstappen and therefore wanted to use their right to have the matter reviewed. The stewards saw no reason to reopen the case, which means that a penalty for the Dutchman is definitely off the table.
Stewards stand by their decision on incident Verstappen and Hamilton
After the Grand Prix, race director Michael Masi announced that the onboard footage of Verstappen's car had not been considered when making the decision. Mercedes took this as an opportunity to reopen the case and met with the stewards on Thursday afternoon. Red Bull Racing were also present at this meeting.
The German team received no new answer from the stewards, however. They stuck with the original decision of the 'let them race' approach, with the onboard images not changing that. Verstappen therefore has retained his second place and does not have to give it away to Valtteri Bottas.
Bad news for Mercedes, whose team boss Toto Wolff called the decision not to penalise Verstappen 'laughable'. However, he will now have to accept the 'loss of three possible points', as he referred to the decision earlier.