Another key part of McLaren's argument had been that the team had checked with FIA race director Charlie Whiting to see if Hamilton had driven correctly, and been told that the move was 'okay' in Whiting's opinion - with the judges hearing the relevant radio conversation in court yesterday.

There was a further controversy during the hearing when former FIA steward Tony Scott-Andrews claimed that the governing body had misrepresented his views in an email sent to all parties in the case last week.

McLaren's legal team had been using Scott-Andrews' decision to impose a time penalty on Vitantonio Liuzzi in last year's Japanese GP as a precedent for such judgements being appealed, but the FIA email indicated that Scott-Andrews had subsequently suggested he was wrong to apply such a penalty - a claim that Scott-Andrews vehemently disputed in a written submission to the appeal court.

(Scott Andrews) cliams that he was never asked if he had made a mistake by the F.I.A.
The opposite of the F.I.A. CLAIMS IN A EMAIL.
(Scott andrews) was shown the F.I.A. email describing the email by the F.I.A. as "INACURATE and MISLEADING"