Four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel spent most of Sunday apologising to the Ferrari team and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for an incident on the first corner.
Kimi made a mistake going into the long right hander which left him outwide, Vettel was on the inside of him but wasn’t hugging the curb.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat saw this opening and took advantage at great speed, he didn’t hit anyone and made the corner so from his point of view he did nothing wrong.
Vettel on the other hand, knowing full well that Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne was sitting in the garage watching, collided with his team-mate ruining both of their races.
Whilst Vettel recovered to finish second despite requiring a replacement front wing, Kimi finished fifth.
Throughout the race Vettel laid the blame on Kvyat over team radio calling the move ‘suicidal’ and Vettel couldn’t wait to have his say with Kvyat which led to an entertaining exchange in the drivers room before the champagne was sprayed on the podium.
‘Obviously it?s difficult to judge how it looked from his [Kvyat’s] point of view, but my start wasn?t so great, so I was a bit on the back foot into turn one and then I think Kimi locked up, went a bit wide, I wanted to go on the inside to overtake him.
‘I think Daniil was trying to do the same thing with me, but then Kimi came back and I had to sort of be in the middle. He was coming with a lot of speed into that gap. I was very surprised, so I had to steer some sort of left. At the same time Kimi was coming across and there was no way [through], so we made contact, which is a shame because you don?t want the same cars, same colour touching each other. Vettel told formula1.com.
‘In the end we were lucky ? I could continue, he could continue, but surely not the best result for the team, so sorry for that.
Kvyat obviously saw no problems with the move and neither did the race stewards who did not investigate the incident.
‘I had a really good start. You see the gap, you go for it on the inside, you see one car, usually it?s hard to see both cars? yeah, it was a risky move of course, I agree with Seb, but these kind of moves can bring you a podium, so I?m on the podium, he?s on the podium, it?s fine. I will keep on risking like this and everyone should expect that! The happy Russian said on the podium.
Embarrassed Vettel slams Kvyat
