© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes has lodged two protests over the controversial ending to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix involving the Safety Car.
In the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix a Safety Car was deployed because of a crash for Nicholas Latifi. What happened afterwards was baffling.
Max Verstappen went for a tyre change as he had nothing to lose, because Lewis was dominating the whole race. Mercedes decided to leave Lewis out, so that they do not lose track position.
There was a strong possibility that the Safety Car would go until the end of the race, however, in a late decision the FIA decided to allow the drivers to race for one lap.
They also allowed backmarkers to overtake the Safety Car, bringing Max right behind Lewis on fresh soft tyres. This allowed the Dutch driver to easily overtake Lewis and win the race and the championship.
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However, not all backmarkers were able to overtake the Safety Car before the race was restarted. Now after the race Mercedes has decided to lodge a protest surrounding Article 48.12, which says that “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car”.
They also lodged another protest based on Article 48.8, which says “no driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits”. This was in relation to Max Verstappen getting ahead of Hamilton’s car under the Safety Car.
UPDATE: The stewards have rejected Mercedes protest based on Article Article 48.8.
UPDATE 2: The stewards have rejected Mercedes protest based on Article Article 48.12.
UPDATE 3: Mercedes has notified the FIA that they intend to take their appeal to FIA’s International Court of Appeal.
