Mercedes withdraws protest, Hamilton: 'It's not what we do'

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Mercedes has withdrawn its protest against Max Verstappen's driving in the Japanese Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton saying "it's not what we do".

Hamilton attacked Verstappen at the final chicane on the penultimate lap of the race, attempting to making a move on the inside but seeing the Red Bull close the door. Hamilton then had to switch to the outside of the track and ran wide as a result, rejoining behind Verstappen and finishing the race in third place.

Mercedes lodged a protest against the result of the race as it alleged Verstappen "drove erratically and in a dangerous manner, forcing [Hamilton] to take evasive action at Turn 16".

However, with neither driver at the circuit to allow a hearing to take place, the matter was deferred to the United States Grand Prix, at which point Mercedes withdrew its protest.

It appears Hamilton did not support the protest himself despite being in a position to profit from any penalty for Verstappen, originally tweeting: "There is no protest from either myself or Mercedes. One idiot said we have but it's not true. Max drove well, end of. We move on."

Hamilton then deleted his tweet and clarified: "There is no protest from myself. Just heard the team had but I told them it is not what we do. We are champions, we move on. End of!"

The result of the Japanese Grand Prix was made official following the withdrawal of the protest, with Hamilton now 33 points behind race winner Nico Rosberg in the drivers' championship.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.