Ferrari requests review of Vettel's Mexican GP penalty

Vettel lost third place in the Mexico race after being handed a 10-second time penalty for moving under braking when defending from Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

The Ferrari driver blocked Ricciardo aggressively at Turn 4 on the penultimate lap of the race, a move that triggered an investigation and later a penalty that dropped Vettel from third to fifth.

Vettel was also awarded two penalty points for the incident.

On Thursday, however, Ferrari announced that it had submitted a request to the stewards asking them to review the decision after "new elements have come to light".

Although the results will not change, Ferrari said it was important as a precedent for the future.

"Scuderia Ferrari has submitted a request to the Stewards of the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix to review their decision to penalize Sebastian Vettel for breach of Article 27.5 of the 2016 F1 Sporting Regulations as a consequence of his driving behavior in Turn 4 of lap 70," said Ferrari in a statement.

"This has been the first application of Article 27.5 of the 2016 F1 Sporting Regulations as interpreted on the basis of the Race Director's notes on "defensive maneuvers" and effective from the 2016 US Grand Prix.

"Scuderia Ferrari considers that a number of new elements have come to light after the decision was rendered that make the decision reviewable under Article 14.1 of the International Sporting Code.

"Scuderia Ferrari is aware that championship rankings will not change, regardless of the outcome. But in light of its importance as a precedent for the future, and in order to provide clarity in the application of the rules in future events, Scuderia Ferrari believes that the decision should be reconsidered by the Stewards."

Earlier on Thursday, in the Brazilian Grand Prix pre-event press conference, Vettel reiterated that he did not agree with the Mexico penalty.

"Well, obviously I don’t agree with the decision that was made," he said. "I think I moved over once to defend my position, after that yeah, I think I gave Daniel enough room on the inside; I kept the car straight for more than the majority of the braking, so I think the reason why, from my point of view, why Daniel locked up so bad is because there was no grip on the inside and it’s something that… yeah… I think we all knew.

"There were people locking up on other corners when they were off-line, so I think it actually looks a bit worse than it was. I don’t think it was actually dangerous for Daniel at that point but OK, I have to deal with the decision."