Mercedes have officials requested permission to view Max Verstappen’s onboard footage during their scuffle in Sao Paulo, it has been revealed.
In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, the constructor leaders said they “requested a right of review” of the lap 48 incident “on the basis of new evidence unavailable to the stewards at the time of the decision”.
The team was clearly unhappy about the decision by stewards not to investigate the incident after saying they had seen all they needed to from available replays – and that the fault was not Verstappen’s.
Later, FIA race director Michael Masi, revealed that the team of stewards had not been able to see Verstappen’s onboard in real-time, and so after the footage was released online, Mercedes quickly initiated their request.
Stewards will soon decide whether or not ‘new’ evidence should warrant another look at the incident.
Speaking about the incident at the post-race press conference, Lewis Hamilton said; “In the heat of the moment, it doesn’t… I don’t really know.
“I think I was ahead initially, and I think he held his ground and we both ran out of road.
“Well, I think he was running out of road, so I obviously had to avoid going out of road – but I mean, I didn’t think too much of it and obviously I’ll have to watch the replay, but it’s hard battling and wouldn’t expect anything less really.
“We didn’t touch wheels, which is good.”
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s opinion was; “The decisive moment, I knew when we went through Turn 3 that he was going to get ahead because he was super-close.
“But already, two laps before, I was really starting to struggle on traction and tyres, so I knew it was going to be really tough but you never know.
“I just tried to do the best I could and, of course, once he got by then, you know, I was hanging on with the tyres to the end.”
