FIA dismissed Red Bull's review of Hamilton's British GP ten-second penalty

The FIA rejected Red Bull’s request on Thursday after the Milton Keynes-based outfit asked the governing body to review the controversial collision between Formula 1 title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.

The incident in question happened on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton was desperate to get past his championship rival Max Verstappen. The Briton failed to pass the Dutchman at the start and was chasing him aggressively through the first corners.

When the pair approached the National Straight, Hamilton totally closed in on Verstappen and went to the inside of the entry of Copse. The seven-time world champion braked late, missed the apex and tagged the right rear of Verstappen’s RB16B. The Red Bull driver was taken out of the race in a 51G impact that required a hospital visit for precautionary checks. The crash caused a huge damage to the Red Bull car, leaving the team with a bill for a whopping £1.3million ($1.8 million) to repair the damage.

While Hamilton was handed a ten-second penalty, he could still win the race and cut Verstappen’s championship lead down to just eight points.

Red Bull was clearly unhappy with the stewards' decision and lodged a formal request in which it asked the FIA to review the penalty Lewis Hamilton was given for the incident. Mercedes and Red Bull discussed the matter with the FIA this afternoon via a virtual meeting. Following a hearing at the Hungaroring on Thursday, the governing body decided to reject Red Bull's request.

It stated: “That what was presented to the Stewards was not "a significant and relevant new element [that was] discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned".

“The slides in Appendix 2 of the Competitor's letter that were relied upon as New Evidence were not "discovered" but created for the purposes of submissions to support the Petition for Review. And they were created based on evidence that was available to the Competitor at the time of the decision (namely the GPS data). That clearly does not satisfy the requirements of Article 14.”

“The Stewards note, with some concern, certain allegations made in the Competitor's above letter. “Such allegations may or may not have been relevant to the Stewards if the Petition for Review had been granted. The Stewards may have addressed these allegations directly in any decision that would have followed. The Petition having been dismissed, the Stewards make no comments on those allegations.”

Mercedes, of course, welcomed the outcome of the hearing, addig: The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team welcomes the decision of the Stewards to reject Red Bull Racing’s right of review.

“In addition to bringing this incident to a close, we hope that this decision will mark the end of a concerted attempt by the senior management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good name and sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton, including in the documents submitted for their unsuccessful right of review.

"We now look forward to going racing this weekend and continuing our hard-fought completion for the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship," read the Mercedes' statement.