‘Cheat’ storm lifts over Vettel in Monaco FORMULA ONE

SEBASTIAN Vettel’s world championship bid was put back on course last night when Formula One’s rulers exonerated Ferrari in the ‘cheat’ storm that has cast a shadow over the 76th staging of the Monaco Grand Prix.

In an evening of intrigue by the Mediterranean, FIA race director Charlie Whiting revealed the potentially seasonshaping verdict in the control tower above the track on which, half an hour earlier, Daniel Ricciardo produced the fastest lap ever driven here to take pole position for today’s race.

‘We are now satisfied everything is in order,’ Whiting told Sportsmail, dismissing concerns that Ferrari get an extra power boost through an illegal battery construction.

‘The matter was exacerbated by unsubstantiated allegations that went through the paddock like wildfire. It came from a Ferrari engine man now at Mercedes.

‘If we had a hard case, we would have gone to the stewards, but we didn’t have anything. If they (Mercedes) felt they had anything substantial to question, they could have made a protest.’

Whiting identified the ‘Ferrari engine man’ as Lorenzo Sassi, and, more explosively, revealed that the matter was brought to the FIA’s attention by Mercedes’ technical director James Allison prior to the fourth race of the season in Baku.

It seems Mercedes have tried surreptitiously to campaign for Ferrari to be investigated without making an official protest.

Lewis Hamilton, who leads Vettel by just 17 points, is the man set to be most directly impacted by Ferrari’s clean bill of health. He starts third today, a place behind Vettel.

Asked after qualifying if he thought his rival’s car was legal, Hamilton couched his concerns cryptically: ‘I keep my ear very close to the ground. I know what’s going on.’