Burn the rules: Vettel rages after Ferrari's appeal against penalty rejected

Twelve days and a lot of hot air after the Canadian Grand Prix, we can declare Lewis Hamilton the winner. Confirmation came here in the sun-kissed south of France on Friday when Ferrari's challenge to the imposition of a five-second penalty on their No 1 driver Sebastian Vettel was chortled out of court. 'There are no significant or relevant new elements,' said the official communique from the FIA of the Scuderia's attempted review.  Gallery: Where do Vettel's antics rank among F1's most controversial moments? (ReadSport) We suspected as much when Ferrari informed the FIA last week, while still denying the fact in public, that they would not strictly be appealing the stewards' verdict from Montreal.  An official petition would have involved top silks and extravagant legal bills. All that happened was sporting director Laurent Mekies trotted into the stewards' room at Circuit Paul Ricard, venue of Sunday's French Grand Prix. Of the other two parts, the face camera was deemed 'new but not significant and relevant' and Chandhok's analysis inadmissible because it was a 'personal opinion by a third party'. Ferrari have done their reputation no favours with their obfuscatory behaviour in the period since the incident on lap 48 of the Canadian Grand Prix, when Vettel ran off track, on to the grass and returned in Hamilton's path as they fought for the lead. Their dismay was understandable - many ex-drivers, and much of the F1 community, thought the skirmish was a racing incident that, at least morally speaking, needed no intervention from the stewards, even if, clearly, the rules, like them or not, had been broken. Vettel's fury was evident on the afternoon of the race, when he called the stewards 'blind' and then moved the first and second markers in parc ferme. His sustained display of petulance was worthy of a charge of bringing the sport into disrepute, not least given his history of X-rated outbursts at officials. Hamilton was fastest in Friday morning practice, his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas setting the pace in the afternoon, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Vettel third and fourth best, six and seven-tenths of a second off the top.

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