F1: Mercedes in remarkable appeal decision after Lewis Hamilton's disqualification from US Grand Prix

However, four hours after the race, F1 chiefs decided to disqualify Hamilton after he'd been adjudged to have ran an illegal floor.

The Stevenage-born racer, who had enjoyed one of his best days of the season until that point, was punished after four cars had been investigated at random.

Hamilton had previously been fitted with a new floor in an upgrade package during the race in Austin.

Jo Bauer, the FIA’s technical delegate, referred the potential transgressions to the stewards at the Circuit of Americas before the decision was made.

A statement then followed, saying: "Car 44 is disqualified from the race (Article 12.4.1.m of the FIA International Sporting Code).

"The other competitors move up in the classification."

The statement added: "During the hearing the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA technical team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the sprint race schedule that minimised the time to set up and check the car before the race.

"The stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event.

"In this particular case, the rear skid in the area defined in the technical delegate’s report was outside of the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 e) of the FIA Formula One technical regulations, which includes a tolerance for wear.

"Therefore, the standard penalty for a breach of the technical regulations is imposed."

According to the Daily Mail, however, Mercedes won't be appealing the decision.

Toto Wolff admitted after the race that the Silver Arrows had 'got it wrong' and lamented the outcome.

"Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice - and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package," he stated.

"In the end, all of that doesn't matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there's no wiggle room in the rules.

"We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend."

Hamilton reacted to the news by admitting he was 'disappointed' to lose his spot on the podium.

"It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race," said the 38-year-old.

​"But that doesn't take away from the progress we've made this weekend."

Verstappen won his 15th race of the season in America.

And after clocking up the 50th race win of his career, the 25-year-old dubbed it an 'incredible' achievement.

“It started already with starting in P6, but I think the whole race, I was struggling a lot with the brakes," the Red Bull star said.

"Around here at quite a few braking points and couldn’t really have the same feeling as yesterday.

"So that definitely made my race a bit tougher out there today but you could see it was very close in the end and also with the backmarkers.

"The tyres already going, it makes it all a bit more difficult.

“We don’t want to destroy the tyres but like I said before, at the same time I was struggling a lot on the braking, so it took quite a while to at least find a bit of a middle-way.

“That’s of course incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here.

"Very proud of course and we’ll just keep on trying to push for more.”