Ferrari is to appeal the five-second penalty which ultimately cost Sebastian Vettel victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The German was involved in a race-long duel with Lewis Hamilton when he made a small mistake by running wide at Turn 4 and would push the Mercedes against the wall as he rejoined the track.
Reaction has been overwhelmingly against the penalty, and now the Italian team have until Thursday to make their case to be referred to the FIA Court of Appeal.
The biggest hurdle to that, however, is a regulation which states five-second penalties cannot be appealed.
Regardless, after the race, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto stated Vettel and his team were the de facto winners of Sunday’s race in Montreal.
“We won today. I think honestly we have been the fastest on track today and that is important,” he told Sky Sports.
“Firstly it is not down to us to decide [the penalties] in this sport but if you look at the crowd, everybody seemed to believe that [it was wrong].
“There was nothing that Sebastian could have done in that situation. I don’t think he had any bad intentions in what he was doing at all.
“He stayed ahead in the entire race until the chequered flag and to us, he is our winner. As a team, we have been competitive and we are fighting to win races so we will have a boost on this. The season is not over.”
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With plenty of speculation in the build-up to Canada that Vettel is considering retirement after this season, Binotto was also encouraged by the motivation and desire the four-time champion had.
“It is a good sign, for a driver he is hungry and he has proven that yesterday in qualifying and today in the race,” he said.
“We are all hungry here so I think that will certainly help us in the next few weeks, month and races.
“He was driving at the limit on every lap and every single corner, he did a mistake in that respect, it was borderline on the tyres so coming back on the track you have no grip as you were just on the grass so there is nothing you can do. That is what he did.”
