I don't blame Merc for protesting. I may have been hoping for Verstappen, but the race director leaving just some of the lapped cars unlap themselves just before the final lap was a joke. He knew he was handing the title to Verstappen by doing that.
We all wanted it to finish as a race and not behind the safety car. The fairest thing to do was to red flag it once the crash happend and start it again with both drivers on fresh tyres and let them go at for the remaing 5 or 6 laps.
However it could be argued it was Mercs tough luck for not coming in and changing their tyres.
The crash put Mercedes in an awkward position. They gambled and lost. Hamilton on the radio at the time questioned it and he was right.
You could red flag it but the fact that they were able to race it at the end probably indicates it wasn't red flag worthy... flagging it would give RB grounds to appeal because it would have bailed out Mercedes.
It may have been the most racing way to do it but if you're just gonna chuck the rest of the GP away, it begs the question why bother with it next time.
The officials messed up,but it's not that simple. Under yellow flag cars are definitely allowed to unlap themselves. The officials made their first mistake in not allowing it earlier. By delaying the unlapping for too long they put themselves in the position of
A) Not letting any cars unlap, handing the championship to Hamilton (and #Istandwithhammy with would be moaning about red bull being sore losers for appealing it)
Or B) Letting all cars unlap and potentially ending the race under the safety flag due to it taking too long and again handing it to Hamilton
(and again #Istandwithhammy with would be moaning about red bull being sore losers for appealing it)
In the end the officials used the "I can do whatever I want" rule to bail themselves out of their earlier mistake but that then automatically triggers the Mercedes appeal because it means Verstappen will win.
What should have happened is they let them unlap immediately and this gives you probably 2 laps of racing to finish it out. It doesn't give Hamilton new tyres though and more than likely Verstappen wins, as he did in real life.
I have sympathy for Hamilton because if the yellow hadn't happened, he would win or if Mercedes had called him in to pit, he would also win.
But the appeal? Sorry , no. In a high stakes moment your team made a decision that backfired. The officials fucking it up didn't cause you to lose, in fact it almost saved you.
