F1: Mercedes appeal rejected, Bottas flies to Qatar

 Max Verstappen's maneuver to defend himself from Lewis Hamilton's attempt to overtake at turn 4 of the Brazilian GP will not be examined and the Red Bull driver does not risk retroactive sanctions. In fact, the FIA's appeal was rejected by the Mercedes which aimed at revising what happened on the 48th lap on the Interlagos track, when both Verstappen and Hamilton had gone off the track for a short distance. At the time, the commissioners had not deemed it necessary to investigate the accident, considering it a normal race event. Hamilton then overtook his opponent, going on to win. But on Tuesday, Mercedes called for a review of the decision, hoping for a retrospective sanction against Verstappen and Red Bull. The team, heard yesterday with the Austrian team by the commissioners,added the images of the on-board cameras of Verstappen's single-seater to the appeal file. If this sequence is "new", "not available at the time of the decision" and "relevant", it is not "significant", explained the commissioners, as "the film does not show anything particularly different from the other angles they had ( at the time of the decision), or that it particularly modifies their decision which was based on the initially available movie "" We expected it, "Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff reacted at a press conference. "We wanted to open the discussion on this, because it will probably be a theme in the next three races, so the goal is achieved," he added, ensuring that thethe aim was not to obtain penalties against rivals. For Christian Horner, his Red Bull counterpart, "it's obviously the right decision, otherwise it would have opened Pandora's box regarding a whole host of other incidents." Hamilton is second in the league 14 points behind Verstappen before the last few races in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. On the track the Mercedes of the Finn Valtteri Bottas obtained the best time in the second free practice (1'23 "148), ahead of the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri). For Formula 1 it is the first time on the Losail circuit. Immediately behind Bottas and Gasly, the two world title rivals Verstappen and Hamilton signed the third and fourth fastest time, Verstappen was the fastest in the first session (1'23 "723). Back the Ferraris at the end of the day:tenth time for Carlos Sainz, thirteenth for Charles Leclerc.