Ferrari drops appeal after FIA explanation

Ferrari was considering an appeal after video from Sunday's race appeared to show that Vettel passed Jean-Eric Vergne while a yellow caution light was on.

"The request for a clarification from the FIA came about through the need to shed light on the circumstances of the move, which came out on the Internet only a few days after the race," Ferrari said in a statement. "The letter to the FIA was in no way intended to undermine the legality of the race result.

"We received tens of thousands of queries relating to this matter from all over the world and it was incumbent on us to take the matter further, asking the federation to look into an incident that could have cast a shadow over the championship in the eyes of all Formula 1 enthusiasts, not just Ferrari fans. Ferrari duly takes note of the reply sent by the FIA this morning and therefore considers the matter now closed."

If a rules breach had been proven, Vettel would have been hit with a 20-second penalty, moving him from sixth place to eighth in the race and giving Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso the F1 title by one point.