22/08/2014
NEWS STORY
A late U-Turn by Marussia sees Max Chilton back in his car after being dropped in favour of Alexander Rossi.
Shortly after this morning's opening session got underway, it was revealed that the Race Stewards had received a request from the team to put Chilton back in the car for the remainder of the weekend. The Stewards subsequently agreed to the request.
Yesterday, the team announced that Chilton would be replaced by the American for the entire Spa weekend due to "contractual reasons", widely thought to be about money, the move following Caterham's similar decision to drop Kamui Kobayashi in favour of (F1 race debutant) Andre Lotterer.
Without going into details, Chilton's management claimed the Briton was voluntarily "stepping down" for the race weekend in favour of Rossi in an attempt to "allow the team to attract much needed funds by selling his seat".
Whatever happened overnight, the Briton will now be back in the car for the remainder of the weekend whilst the team attempts to deal with what can only be seen as a highly embarrassing PR blunder.
Around 75 minutes after the end of the session, Marussia issued a brief statement confirming the move.
"Following a change in circumstances and with the approval of the Stewards of the Meeting, Max Chilton will be the nominated driver for the duration of the Belgian Grand Prix."
Chris Balfe
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