Mercedes have launched two protests following a controversial end to the title-deciding Abu Dhabi finale after a late safety car restart enabled Verstappenꦰ to pass Lewis Hamilton on the last lap and claim his maiden world title. 

Race direction initially said that lapped cars could not overtake the leaders but reversed the decis🎃ion, putting Verstappen - on fresh soft tyres - right behind Hamilton heading into a final lap sprint to the flag. 

The second protest relates to Verstappen allegedly overtaking Hamilton under the safety car befor♔e the race restarted. 

Asked for his♓ reaction to Mercedes’ protests, Verstappen replied: "Not much really to say about that. 

"I thin♏k it als𓃲o sums up a little bit this season.”

Red ෴Bull team principal Christian Horner said his side was “disappointed” by the protest but added it “trusts in the FIA”.&nb🗹sp;

Verstappen believes the correct protoco😼ls were followed by race director Michael Ma🃏si. 

“Everything was ﷽clear, so then why would you run another lap behind the safety car?,” he explained. 

“Whenever everything is it’s clear that yo🎉u ha꧃ve to release the track, so I think that’s a fair point from race direction. 

“Of course now it works for me, but it can also work against me.🎶 I’m aware of that.” 

Verstappen ultimat🦋ely won the race and world champi🍸onship with a daring late lunge on Hamilton heading into the Turn 5 hairpin. 

Explaining his thinking ahead of the restart, Verst♎appen said: “Of course you try to react to what he is doing, so I tried to be not too far away. 

✱"I could see he was struggling quite a bit for the hard tyres to warm up and I had the grip, so I could sꦗtay relatively close. And of course on the soft tyres, that first lap you could clearly see I had more grip. 

“But then you still have after Turn 5🉐 two very lo﷽ng straights where you have a chance to come back. It was all pretty close between us.”