Raikkonen reigns as Court reject Hamilton appeal

LEWIS HAMILTON’S last remaining hope of becoming Formula One world champion this year has been crushed by the Court of Appeal.

McLaren had appealed the result of the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, believing BMW Sauber and Williams were in breach of the regulations.

If Williams’ Nico Rosberg and the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld had been disqualified, that could have resulted in Hamilton being promoted to fourth, and with it taking the title.

But after a lengthy deliberation by the four judges who presided over Thursday’s hearing in London, they have decided McLaren’s appeal was inadmissible, so finally confirming Kimi Raikkonen as world champion.

Confirming the judgment, a statement read: “Following a report from the technical delegate indicating the temperature of fuel pumped into the cars number nine Nick Heidfeld, number 10 Robert Kubica, number 16 Nico Rosberg and number 17 Kazuki Nakajima, was more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient temperature, the stewards of the meeting met to consider whether a penalty should be imposed.

“They decided not to impose a penalty as they had sufficient doubt as to both the temperature of the fuel on board the car and to the true ambient temperature.

“Having heard the explanations of both parties and having examined the various documents and other evidence, the court decided that the appeal lodged by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is inadmissible.”

McLaren had called into question the decision of the stewards at Interlagos not to punish Williams and BMW Sauber for apparently using ‘cool fuel’, so gaining a performance advantage.

Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfield finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in Brazil behind race-winner Raikkonen, with Hamilton seventh; missing out on the title by a point. from the Finn.

McLaren continually maintained in the build-up to the appeal there motive was for clarity of the regulations, and not for Hamilton to win the title in the courtroom.

However, after initially arguing whether McLaren’s case was first admissible, and then the merits of their action, the team’s lawyer Ian Mill QC called for disqualification of the three drivers and a reclassification of the championship.

That prompted Ferrari’s lawyer, Nigel Tozzi QC, to brand McLaren as “naked opportunists,” further suggesting they are “shameless hypocrites devoid of any integrity”.

The four judges — John Cassidy from the US, Vassilis Koussis from Greece, Jose Nacedo E Cunha from Portugal and Jan Stovicek from the Czech Republic — listened to four hours of legal argument at the hearing.

Their verdict concludes a miserable season for McLaren, notably as the team were fined £50million (€70m) and stripped of all constructors’ points in the ‘spygate’ case.