McLaren has officially failed to gain a review of the penalty handed out to Lando Norris in the United States Grand Prix.
Norris was given a 5s time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when overtaking Max Verstappen late in the race, with the penalty dropping him back behind his title rival in the final classification. McLaren lodged a petition for a right of review into the penalty on Thursday, with a hearing on Friday determining whether a significant and relevant new element existed that wasn’t available at the time of the decision.
McLaren claimed that its new element was the stewards’ document describing the penalty itself from Austin, that stated, “Car No. 4 was overtaking Car No. 1 on the outside but was not level with Car No. 1 at the apex,” McLaren argued this was an error because it had evidence that Norris had already overtaken and was ahead of Verstappen “at the braking zone,” and that therefore this error in the decision was the significant and relevant new element.
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Following the hearing on Friday afternoon — that took place with representatives from McLaren and Red Bull — the original stewards decided that the petition was not sustainable, because it claims the new element is the document itself.
“A petition for review is made in order to correct an error (of fact or law) in a decision,” the stewards’ decision read. “Any new element must demonstrate that error.
“In this case, the concept that the written Decision (document number 69) was the significant and relevant new element, or that an error in the decision was a new element, is not sustainable and is, therefore, rejected.”
The result of the race at Circuit of The Americas therefore stands, with Verstappen retaining a 57-point lead over Norris heading into this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.