The Aston Martin team has confirmed that it has exercised its right to appeal the FIA stewards' decision to exclude Sebastian Vettel from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel finished last weekend's race second on the road, but during a post-race fuel sample check, the scrutineers were unable to extract the 1-litre minimum amount of fuel mandated from the tank of the German driver's Aston Martin AMR21, as mandated by the regulations.
Despite several attempts by Aston's crews to remove the required amount of fuel from the tank, only 0.3 litres could be pumped out, a shortfall that left the stewards with no other choice than to exclude car #5 from the race's results.
Aston Martin had 96 hours to lodge its appeal which it effectively did on Thursday evening.
"There was and is no suggestion that Vettel’s Aston Martin AMR21 car benefited from a performance advantage from the alleged regulatory breach, or that it was deliberate," said the Silverstone-based squad in a short statement.
"Since the team’s data indicated that there was more than 1.0 litre of fuel in the car after the race – 1.74 litres according to the data – the team immediately reserved its right to appeal, and has requested a right of review alongside the appeal procedure, as a result of having discovered significant new evidence relevant to the sanction which was unavailable to it at the time of the FIA stewards' decision."
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