The FIA International Court of Appeal has rejected Alfa Romeo’s attempt to overturn their post-race penalties at the German Grand Prix.
After the crazy wet race at Hockenheim, both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi lost their top 10 results when the stewards ruled that their clutch map had failed to respond to torque inputs within the allowed margin for error.
As a result, they ruled this could have given the drivers an advantage at the start with a kind of defacto traction control.
Alfa Romeo immediately launched an appeal with team boss Fred Vasseur saying: “The situation arose during the laps we spent behind the Safety Car ahead of the standing start.
“We suffered a dysfunction of the clutch that was beyond our control. We respect the FIA’s process and the stewards’ work, but believe we have the grounds and evidence to have it overturned.”
Having presented that case, however, the governing body ruled against them with the 30-second penalties remaining in place.
Their ruling does have championship implications with Lewis Hamilton keeping the two points he scored in ninth and thus his 65-point lead in the standings.
Robert Kubica also holds onto his solitary point in 10th for Williams.