09/10/2016
NEWS STORY
Suzuka stewards have revealed that Mercedes has withdrawn its protest against Max Verstappen.
The German team, which today secured its third successive Constructors' Championship, lodged an official complaint relating to Max Verstappen's defence of his second place on the penultimate lap of today's Japanese Grand Prix.
However, since Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had left the circuit and were therefore unable to meet with the stewards the hearing was subsequently deferred until the next round of the world championship at the Circuit of the Americas.
Less than an hour after news of the deferment, Mercedes notified the stewards that it is withdrawing the protest, shortly after Hamilton took to social media to distance himself from the move.
"There is no protest from myself," he tweeted. "Just heard the team had but I told them it is not what we do. We are champions, we move on. End of!"
"Speaking of the incident Verstappen told reporters: "The laps before he was closing quite a bit, but I saw already out of Turn 14 he had a good exit so I was using a bit of energy and I defended into the last chicane. All good."
"I thought it was firm but fair," added team boss Christian Horner. "I didn't really see any issue with it and Lewis didn't seem to have any problem after the race, apparently he said well done to him."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka, here.