Max Verstappen celebrated his maiden F1 title victory on Twitter shortly after FIA stewards dismissed Mercedes’ official protest against Lewis Hamilton’s loss in the final lap of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Toto Wolff’s team had contested the final classification over two alleged breaches of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, citing race director Michael Masi’s controversial safety car procedure.

Mercedes’ first protest was “against the classification established at the end of the Competition, alleged breach of Article 48.12 of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.” The second protest was regarding alleged breach of Article 48.8 of the regulations. Mercedes said it has lodged its intention to appeal one of the decisions.

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“We have lodged our intention to appeal Document 58 / the decision of the stewards to dismiss the team’s protest,” said a Mercedes spokesperson. That gives Mercedes 96 hours to decide if it will continue and formally lodge an appeal with the FIA.

The controversy arose over the way Masi handled the decision to restart the race at the start of the final lap.

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Masi allowed the drivers between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass them, giving Verstappen an advantage. But he did not do the same to the cars between Verstappen and third-placed Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Article 48.12 of the sporting regulations says: “If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message ‘lapped cars may now overtake’ has been sent to all competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.”

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Article 48.12 of the sporting regulations says that “once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap”. In this case, the race was started at the end of the same lap. 

Mercedes argued Hamilton would have won the race had both rules been applied accordingly.

The stewards ruled that a separate rule gave Masi the power to control the safety car, which “includes its deployment and withdrawal”.

They added: “Although article 48.12 may not have been applied fully, in relation to the safety car returning to the pits at the end of the following lap, article 48.13 overrides that and once the message ‘safety car in this lap’ has been displayed, it is mandatory to withdraw the safety car at the end of that lap.

They added that Mercedes’ request to amend the positions at the end of the penultimate lap “is a step that the stewards believe is effectively shortening the race retrospectively, and hence not appropriate.”

On the matter of Verstappen passing Hamilton before the race had re-started, the stewards said: “Although [Verstappen] did at one stage, for a very short period of time, move slightly in front of [Hamilton], at a time when both cars where accelerating and braking, it moved back behind and it was not in front when the Safety Car period ended [ie, at the line].”