Ferrari were unsuccessful in their protest against the two Red Bull drivers over alleged pit lane exit violations during the Monaco Grand Prix.
The stakes were high in the case before the stewards. Red Bull had won the race with Sergio Perez and his team mate Max Verstappen had finished third.
The stewards took over four-and-a-half hours to publish their verdicts, which rejected Ferrari’s protest on both counts. However, Verstappen had come closer to breaking the rule than his team mate.
The matter centred on whether the drivers had crossed the line at the pit lane exit as they rejoined the track. This is a long-established rule which periodically gets broken and Ferrari were able to cite a recent example of a driver being penalised for doing so: Yuki Tsunoda in Austria last year.
After scrutinising footage of the two incidents, it became clear Perez had touched the line with his tyre, but had not strayed beyond it to the asphalt beyond.
Verstappen’s situation was different. As viewers on the television feed saw from his onboard camera during the race, part of his front-left tyre did go beyond the line. The same was true of his rear-left.
At a hearing attended by Ferrari and Red Bull, “all parties agreed that car one [Verstappen] did have part of its front left and rear left tyre on the left side of the yellow line,” the stewards noted.
However the tyre did not fully cross the line. “All parties agreed that most of the left front and left rear tyres of that car remained on the yellow line,” added the stewards.
Had Verstappen committed the same infringement in last year’s race, he might have found himself in trouble. At that time, article five of chapter four of Appendix L of the International Sporting Code stated:
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“Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards), any line painted on the track at the pit exit for the purpose of separating cars leaving the pits from those on the track…