Merecedes not to apeal Monaco grand prix decision
Michael Schumacher finished 6th in the recently concluded Monaco Grand Prix, but after the review of the race stewards of the Overtaking Maneuver from Michel Schumacher, he was fined 20 seconds and in result he was moved to 12th spot from his original 6th position.
Schumacher overtook Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso while the Safety car was on the tracks, and according to the F1 rules, no one is supposed to overtake while the yellow flag is being waved or the safety car is leading the race. The incident in question took place during the final lap, which also meant that Fernando Alonso finished in 5th place, which is a great achievement for the Spaniard who started his race from the back of the grid in his spare car. After he was unable to be part of qualifying, as he crashed his car during the final practice session on the morning of Qualifying at the Monte Carlo circuit.
Schumacher’s team in an official statement said:
"Whilst we cannot be happy with the outcome, we are pleased the FIA recognized the reasons for our interpretation," said Mercedes.
"In the best interests of the sport, Mercedes will not submit an appeal."
Schumacher went past the 2nd time World Champion Alonso, when following an incident which involved Lotus of Jarno Trulli and Hispania Racing's Karun Chandhok, the Safety car was deployed on the tracks, the pit crew on the radio advised Michael that once the safety car had made its way to the pits he can make his move, the 7th time World Champions made his way towards the final corner, going out of Rascasse and into Anthony Noghes, and left Alonso behind and only for the race Stewards to deem the maneuver illegal. According to the rules the race was supposed to end according to the Safety car conditions.
Article 40.13 of the Formula 1 sporting regulations states:
"If the race ends while the Safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking."
The Penalty was quite costly for the veteran driver; 8 valuable points were taken away which were much needed for him and his team. Mercedes had initially hinted that they will contest the penalty but later changed their decision.
The German driver currently is in 9th position on the driver standings, lagging 34 points behind his team mate Rosberg, and also 56 shy of Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who lead the table.
Mercedes whose pit crew had instructed Michael to make the move explained their actions in a statement.
"We believed that the combination of the race control messages, the green flags and lights shown by the marshals after safety car line one, indicated that the race was not finishing under the Safety car and all drivers were free to race,"
"This opinion appears to have been shared by the majority of the teams with cars in the top 10 positions who also gave their drivers instructions to race to the finish line."
While Fernando Alonso and his team mate Felipe Massa from Ferari insisted that at the time of the incident, they had been instructed by their team to stay in position. But there is a conspiracy theory as the 4 stewards who made the decision, included one of Schumacher’s greatest rivals Damien Hill, and many believe it was a personal vendetta which lead to the penalty rather then the latter of the law. But still those are just assumptions. Mercedes made it clear that they do not share those feelings and have no problems with the decision and accept it fully.
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