Sutil appeals against assault case sentence

Adrian Sutil and the prosecuting attorney at the trial of his recent assault case have both appealed against the initial verdict.

Sutil was given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined €200,000 after being found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm by Munich district court judge Christiane Thiemann on January 31.

That followed an incident in a nightclub in Shanghai after last year’s Chinese Grand Prix in April in which Sutil injured Eric Lux, chief executive of Lotus team owners Genii Capital.

The former Force India driver struck Lux with a champagne glass, causing a wound in his neck that required 24 stitches.

Confirming the appeal, Sutil’s manager Manfred Zimmermann said: “We have decided on this step because we are convinced this judge must not oppose, especially the video tapes which from our point of view are quite obvious and have not been properly considered.”

Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Zimmermann added: “Not asking one of the witnessess to court and other important circumstances have not been considered as well.”

However, the district court has confirmed prosecuting attorney Nicole Selzam has also appealed.

Selzam is known to be pushing for a stiffer sentence that was demanded at the initial trial, namely 21 months suspended and a €300,000 fine.

Should there now be a re-trial, it remains to be seen if Lewis Hamilton, who was with Sutil on the night in question following his grand prix victory in Shanghai earlier that day, will attend.

Following representations made by his solicitor, Hamilton did not appear last month on the grounds of his commitments to McLaren, and instead his statement was read out in court.

The 27-year-old’s failure to attend outraged Sutil who accused him of being “a coward”, “not a man”, insisting they were no longer friends.

As with the first case, Press Association Sport understands Hamilton will attend any re-trial, but again providing it does not clash with his commitments.