Ferrari provide fresh evidence in bid to overturn Sebastian Vettel penalty

Sebastian Vettel hopes fresh evidence will overturn the penalty which lost him the Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel's Ferrari team will call for the controversial punishment to be reviewed at a hearing with the stewards on Friday afternoon at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Ferrari announced their decision to appeal against Vettel's penalty immediately after the Montreal race before withdrawing their challenge four days later.

However, Article 14 of the FIA's International Sporting Code – the Right of Review – provides Ferrari with another avenue to pursue the case if significant fresh evidence is discovered.

Both Vettel and Ferrari, however, were tight-lipped over details of precisely what new data they will present to the stewards.

"We can bring some information that maybe they didn't have at the time," said Vettel.

"The purpose is to open the case and have another look at it. We will see what happens."

Vettel was demoted to second behind Lewis Hamilton after the stewards punished him with a five-second penalty for running off the circuit at the third corner of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before rejoining the track in an "unsafe manner".

Vettel protested his innocence, describing the stewards as "blind", before swapping the first and second-place markers around after the race and initially avoiding the podium celebrations.

"I still have the same view about the incident that I had two weeks ago," added the four-time world champion. "I wasn't losing my temper, I wasn't happy but I had reason not to be happy.

"You can argue I made the mistake at the wrong place as I had to go over the grass. I tried everything to stay on but I was under pressure, and I was pushing as hard as I could."

The German will head into Sunday's eighth round of the championship in the south of France 62 points behind Hamilton.

Vettel has not won since last August's Belgian Grand Prix – a run of 15 races – while rival Hamilton has triumphed 11 times during that period, with his Mercedes team unbeaten this season.

"There is a long way to go, and if we win every race from now it will be a walk in the park," said Vettel.

"But you don't have to be a genius to know that we have a lot of points to score and that Mercedes are in better form than us.

"We are pushing, we have new bits on the car this weekend, and hopefully we are able to close the gap.

"The next races will be very important. Once you hit the 10th race it is half-time in the season. So, at some point, we need to start turning things around. "

Hamilton, meanwhile, was excused from his media duties on Thursday to attend Karl Lagerfeld's memorial service in Paris. The renowned fashion designer died in February.

Hamilton will be in his Mercedes for opening practice on Friday morning.