FIA stewards have rejected Aston Martin’s request to review Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The German finished second to Esteban Ocon in an action-packed race at the Hungaroring but was later thrown out after officials were unable to take the obligatory one-litre fuel sample from his car post-race.
Aston Martin lodged their intent to appeal on Thursday promising to meet the new evidence bar and, in a hearing on Monday, revealed a fuel pressure problem had led to a significant amount of fuel being inadvertently discharged from the tank.
As a result, this meant FIA was only able to take a 0.3L sample from Vettel’s car despite the team’s calculations via the fuel flow meter that 1.44L should have been available.
But in their ruling, the stewards dismissed Aston’s case because the simple fact remained that the car did not have the sufficient amount of fuel for the necessary sample.
As for why there was insufficient fuel, that was not relevant because it is up to the team alone to ensure its car conforms with the rules and the argument that no performance advantage was gained is also irrelevant.
For Aston to have had a case, therefore, the burden was on them to prove Vettel’s car did have the one litre of fuel required but that was not the case.
This decision means the disqualification stands with the final top three seeing Ocon winning ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz respectively.
