PK Racing's bid to have a more severe penalty imposed on its FIA GT Championship rival Vitaphone Racing has been rejected as inadmissible by the FIA's International Court of Appeal.
Vitaphone Maserati drivers Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels beat PK Chevrolet duo Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen to this year's title by just two points, but PK repeatedly accused Vitaphone of employing illegal team orders to benefit its lead car.
Although PK's protests were unsuccessful, it then argued that Bertolini and Bartels should have been given a greater penalty for having too many mechanics working on their car during a pit stop in the season finale at Zolder. Vitaphone was given a retrospect drive-through, converted to a 30-second time penalty, for the transgression, but that did not affect Bertolini's and Bartels' third place.
PK therefore argued that the penalty was inadequate, but the FIA appeal court dismissed the team's case on the grounds that drive-through penalties cannot be appealed either by the team that received the punishment or its rivals. The court ordered PK to pay the costs of the case.
Earlier this week Hezemans and Kumpen lost their second-place finish at Zolder when scrutineers ruled that their Chevrolet had cylinder irregularities, although PK is appealing against this exclusion.