Mercedes and Pirelli kept waiting for tyre verdict

Mercedes will have to wait until Friday to discover if they face punishment over controversial testing of Pirelli tyres, after a hearing at the sport’s governing body, FIA, deferred its verdict on Thursday.

The hearing, in Paris, lasted six hours and was to consider further written submissions overnight.

Mercedes produced a strong defence of their position concerning last month’s tests in Barcelona and placed the blame firmly on tyre supplier Pirelli.

The session before the international tribunal was called after Mercedes appeared to contravene the world governing body’s ban on in-season testing by their current car and regular drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the 1,000-kilometre test held between May 15 and 17.

Pirelli were summoned on the grounds they had allegedly failed to inform all the other teams of the test.

Mercedes were accused of breaching FIA rules which prevent competitors committing “any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motorsport generally”.

Paul Harris, representing Mercedes, rejected the FIA’s stance by insisting it was “irrefutable” that Pirelli controlled the running of the car and the driver for the duration of the test.

He said: “Pirelli did it all. They were in charge of it all and it’s obvious why – it was a Pirelli test.”