Highlights

Spyker protest against Toro Rosso at Malaysian GP

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-06 08:43

Spyker protested at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Thursday against the legality of the cars entered by Formula One rivals Toro Rosso.

The British-based team said they had submitted a formal letter of protest within the two-hour deadline after scrutineering for Sunday's race and the stewards were considering it.

A decision was expected on Friday.

Both Ferrari-powered teams have been at loggerheads since before the start of the season, with Spyker taking both Toro Rosso and Honda-backed Super Aguri to arbitration in a row over so-called customer cars.

Spyker say both Super Aguri and Toro Rosso cannot be considered as constructors, and should therefore not be eligible for points in that championship because they have not designed their own cars.

The two teams concerned say their cars are legal.

Super Aguri were not involved in Thursday's protest and Spyker did not say why Toro Rosso, whose car shares a common designer with sister team Red Bull in Adrian Newey, had been singled out.

Spyker team boss Colin Kolles tried to protest the Super Aguri, which rivals say is effectively last year's race-winning Honda, in Melbourne last month but stewards decided it was not something they could rule on because it concerned an interpretation of the sport's confidential Concorde Agreement.

Spyker subsequently started arbitration proceedings.