Mercedes have lodged an official protest with the FIA after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton in the final lap to win his maiden Formula One championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Toto Wolff’s Mercedes team contested the final classification over two alleged breaches of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations. A spokesperson from Mercedes told the media: “As has no doubt been reported, we lodged a formal protest within the required 30 minute time window after the end of the race. We will not make any further comment on the detail of that until the hearing has been conducted.”

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Hamilton enjoyed a comfortable lead over Verstappen having commanded the race, until  Nicholas Latifi crashed with six laps to go, triggering a Safety Car.

Red Bull called Verstappen into the pits and fitted him with soft tyres. Hamilton did not pit and remained on 38-lap-old hard tyres. The race resumed with one lap to go, with Verstappen holding a significant tyre advantage and passing the Mercedes driver to take victory.

Within 30 minutes of the race ending, Mercedes launched two protests. One 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 is regarding alleged breach of Article 48.8 of the regulations.

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‘No Mikey! That was so not right!’ Wolff yelled down the team radio at race director Michael Masi after he decided to remove the safety car.

Speaking after the race, Red Bull principal Christian Horner said Masi had made the right call.

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“Of course he (Toto) will obviously do that (disagree). But it’s unheard of to leave the cars unlapped,” Horner told Sky Sports.

“You could see they wanted to get the race going again but they don’t need to catch up the back of the paddock so they made absolutely the right call.

‘(They were) Difficult circumstances for the stewards, we’re all putting pressure on them, but they called it right.”