Mercedes pleaded Thursday for leniency from the governing body of motorsport, saying it deserves no more than minor punishment for taking part in tyre-testing that rival teams howled was unfair. Lawyers for Mercedes, tyre manufacturer Pirelli and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) rifled through thick binders of evidence as they debated back and forth at an all-day disciplinary tribunal hearing in Paris. A thrust of the FIA's argument was that the 1,000 kilometres of private testing with Pirelli in May in Barcelona offered an advantage to Mercedes that other teams didn't get. Formula 1 bans the use of current-season cars for track tests. In response, Mercedes portrayed itself as...
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