Doha, Nov 19 (IANS): Formula One stewards rejected Mercedes' request to review a decision not to penalise Red Bull's Max Verstappen over his controversial defence of Lewis Hamilton, on Lap 48 of last week's Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Hamilton both ran wide at Turn 4 at Interlagos as the Dutchman stayed ahead. The move was noted by the Race Director, but the FIA stewards decided that no investigation was necessary in this case.

Hamilton later overtook Verstappen to win the race. But on Tuesday Mercedes announced they were seeking a Right of Review of that decision not to investigate Verstappen's actions.

As per formula1.com, the stewards explained, "There will always be some angles of video footage, because of limits in both technology and bandwidth, that are unavailable at the time."

"Whether or not stewards' decisions are considered to be right or wrong, and just as with referees' decisions in soccer, it does not seem desirable to be able to review any or all such in-race discretionary decisions up to two weeks after the fact and the stewards therefore seriously doubt that the intent of the Right of Review in the ISC [International Sporting Code] is to enable competitors to seek a review of such discretionary decisions that do not follow on from a formal inquiry by the stewards and do not result in a published document," the stewards said in a statement on Friday.