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FIA upholds Ricciardo disqualification

15-04-2014

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Red Bull has lost its appeal against Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix following Monday's hearing at the FIA Court of Appeal in Paris.

After convening on Monday the FIA promised a decision the following day, and issued a statement on Tuesday morning on its website. Ricciardo crossed the line in second at Albert Park but was disqualified five hours later, after it was found his car had breached fuel regulations.

Red Bull strenuously denied wrongdoing but had been warned during the weekend that they were in breach of the rules by following the readings of its own sensor rather than the FIA's. Red Bull maintained the FIA's sensor was faulty.

The FIA's statement said: "'On 16 March 2014 the panel of the stewards decided to exclude car N°3 (driver Daniel Ricciardo) from the results of the race as it was found to be not in compliance with the Technical Regulations (the Technical Delegate reported to the Stewards that car N°3 exceeded the required fuel mass flow of 100kg/h). On 20 March 2014, the Österreichischer Automobil-Motorrad und Touring Club - Oberste Nationale Sportkommission für den Motorsport (ÖAMTC-OSK) on behalf of its licence-holder, Infiniti Red Bull Racing, decided to appeal this decision before the International Court of Appeal.

"The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the decision number 56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing's car number three from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.

"The International Court of Appeal was presided over by Mr Harry Duijm (Netherlands), and included Mr Rui Botica Santos (Portugal), Mr Philippe Narmino (Monaco), Mr Antonio Rigozzi (Switzerland) and Mr Jan Stovicek (Czech Republic)."

The FIA added a full verdict will be published at an unconfirmed time later this week. The decision is the first real test of the new regulations for 2014.

In a statement of its own, Red Bull confirmed it will move on from the incident.

"We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn't think we had a very strong case," the statement said. "We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry for Daniel that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved.

We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian throughout the season. We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix."