Sebastian Vettel described his first lap collision with Nico Rosberg as a racing incident.
The Ferrari driver was trying to pass Max Verstappen at the start of the race when he tangled with Rosberg’s Mercedes.
“I think both of us will make the corner, not a problem. Obviously Nico decided to take a different line, he’s ahead, he’s got nothing to do with it and doesn’t have to bother what people are doing behind.”
Rosberg was able to continue in the race after being spun around. Vettel retired with suspension damage. The stewards are investigating the collision.
Vettel said there were “two things that are wrong” in the situation. “First that Nico, without any blame, gets turned around. And second that I’m standing here and the race is still going on.”
Vettel said he did everything he could to get around the corner while fighting with Verstappen. “Racing him is moving around, everybody knows by now.”
“(If) you get squeezed to the inside your angle doesn’t get any better for turn one and then it was, I don’t know the word, it was quite bad, the angle.”
“I was trying to do everything to turn and get the corner, I do get the corner no problem, I’m not braking too late. Nico obviously tries to cut back, I guess to fight Lewis [Hamilton]. At that point we made contact.”
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
2nd October 2016, 8:57
Sebastian “First Lap Nutcase 2016” Vettel. Anything else than a 10 grid penalty would be a surprise.
v_char
2nd October 2016, 9:43
Seriously?
HUHHII (@huhhii)
2nd October 2016, 9:50
Agreed. Vettel has been too reckless at turn one and causing unnecessary collisions in China, Spa and Sepang too. Now is the right time to get him penalised.
Bultaco85
2nd October 2016, 9:54
So, he caused the collision in China? And today he´son the inside and causes the collision too? And Spa Max was a saint???
Amazing bias!!! What a laugh….
Sviatoslav (@)
2nd October 2016, 12:22
Yeah, Vettel crashed into his teammate’s car in China, so it’s Alonso to blame, for sure.
v_char
2nd October 2016, 10:13
Lets not forget Russia too, where he recklessly drove in front of Kvyat.
I think a lifetime ban from all racing activity and being stripped of his 4 WDCs would be a more appropriate penalty though.
hyoko
2nd October 2016, 11:13
And what about his karting trophies?
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
2nd October 2016, 9:35
:D HA HA HA.
In Spa he declared Verstappen as Maniac…
Now He does the inside job aswell.
Lost for words really, to speak about his Lunge. First lap incident for sure, from penalty perspective, but He tried to much in to little space.
Aapje (@aapje)
2nd October 2016, 9:52
Vettel always seems to be involved in these kinds of incidents. That’s pretty telling…
Bultaco85
2nd October 2016, 9:55
Yeah, because the RedBull´s clearly aren´t…………
Mike (@grippgoat)
2nd October 2016, 10:06
The difference is that Max was in control with enough margin to tighten his line right off the inside of the track. Vettel left no margin so when he got squeezed, he took Rosberg out.
Vettel needs to check himself, because he’s wrecking himself.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
2nd October 2016, 10:10
in no way you can compare the move Max did in Spa to this: in Belgium, Max would have had plenty of SPace if Vettel would have given more room, today Vettel just went straight into Rosberg who had a pretty loose line.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd October 2016, 10:57
Max would have plenty of room in Spa? In a salon spa maybe. Are you forgetting Kimi was there right next to him?
Aapje (@aapje)
2nd October 2016, 11:42
Kimi had enough room until Vettel hit Max and pushed him inside.
Bultaco85
2nd October 2016, 13:21
In Spa Vettel could never see Max, the dutch was with all,4 wheels on the piano and we would never be able to make the turn without going wide at the exit.
Vettel was correct there, todays was his fault but nothing special, no need for a unecessary penalty.
Hamilton fans, please blame you frustrations on Vettel.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
2nd October 2016, 9:44
Pretty hard to say since I don’t see replay from Verstappen on board camera, but I think this case is different from Spa because he’s ahead and all his wheels are still in tarmac.
Bultaco85
2nd October 2016, 9:56
Yep, and Max touches his rear left wheel.
Arnoud van Houwelingen
2nd October 2016, 14:50
That is simply untrue .. watch onboard Max car from 1:10 https://youtu.be/nf2BYuOUE1s .. it is definite proof that he didn’t touch Seb !!!
Arnoud van Houwelingen
2nd October 2016, 16:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWfSqIRI1rg click on the controls button (hover with your mouse over video) and change speed to 0,25 and you can definitely see that Max did not hit Seb!!
dex022 (@dex022)
2nd October 2016, 10:02
Exactly! Sometimes they show starts from multiple cars and angles and we saw nothing today in replays especially nothing from Vers car.
smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
3rd October 2016, 8:44
Have a look
https://youtu.be/F4mEvA4-Cpo
Melvin (@)
2nd October 2016, 9:52
Sure. Just like kvyat had a racing accident…. Not braking is not a racing inciden.
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
2nd October 2016, 10:01
Vettel fan here, but I also think it’s just his fault this time.
Patrick (@paeschli)
2nd October 2016, 10:04
What a stupid way to lose a podium.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd October 2016, 10:59
There was no podium there for Ferrari today. If Ros doesn’t have the problem of facing the wrong way in turn 1, he wins the race.
Merc and RB lot faster than Ferrari today.
hyoko
2nd October 2016, 11:13
Not his year, really
OGW (@ogw86)
2nd October 2016, 11:03
Trying to be the devil’s advocate here. Vettel has been amazing off the line this season. His launches are almost perfect. These excellent starts have given him the early lead in some occasions (Melbourne, Canada), but generally result in him getting very close to the cars in front, and sometimes ‘force’ him to commit to overtaking manoeuvres in the first corner, like on Max today. This time he overshot his momentum and really should have been more patient, but I can’t blame him for trying. Just like he shouldn’t have blamed Kvyat in China or Verstappen in Spa.
Didaho
2nd October 2016, 11:41
Was I watching a different race – the one where VET got a brilliant start and entry into the 1st corner and then VES turned into VET, tagged his left rear, breaking VET’s traction and sent him into ROS?
Didaho
2nd October 2016, 13:27
Finally saw VES onboard – he was squirming all over the show on his front brakes but didn’t actually touch VET with his front tyre. So that answers that question.
Arnoud van Houwelingen
2nd October 2016, 16:37
yes here is definite proof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWfSqIRI1rg hover over video and change speed to 0,25 in the controls button
smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
3rd October 2016, 8:43
Does this help
https://youtu.be/F4mEvA4-Cpo
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
2nd October 2016, 11:07
These incidents show nothing but desperation and frustration that Vettel has built up this year due to Ferrari’s inability to fight Mercs and now even RBR looks better on most tracks. The resultant action is trying desperately to gain positional advantage at the start which has landed him trouble here in Malaysia and even Spa (although you can’t blame him completely in Spa).
Seb has had a poor year even compared to 2015 when Ferrari was supposed to be climbing towards Mercs and challenge them while they’re not only slipping further from Mercs, RBR too have climbed higher than them.
I remember a COTD a couple of days back pointing to a similar situation of Seb to Fernando’s stint at Ferrari and this are ominous signs of desperation.
hyoko
2nd October 2016, 12:07
Can’t help but reckoning that Sebastian Vettel has been greatly overrated.
Yes, he mastered the RBR exhaust gimmick much better than Webber ever did, and that got him four easy WDCs. But not a place up there with the greats.
When the exhaust thing was removed, Danny Ricciardo showed him how it’s done. Last year Seb had a decent run, his best so far, I’d say. But this year he is behind Kimi (remember how Alonso trounced Kimi?).
Substracting the car/team factor, Seb might have got the 2015 WDC… but would never have won any other.
Oletros
2nd October 2016, 20:14
Nor sure if serious
Hugh (@hugh11)
2nd October 2016, 11:55
The opportunity was there, there was space for him on the track, he would’ve likely assumed Rosberg would stay on the outside to try and get past Hamilton on the inside into Turn 2, but he broke too late and it didn’t work. Similar to Spa where it ended up with 3 cars fighting over 2 bits of road, and the car on the outside not knowing he had 2 cars on his inside in his blind spot. Could see it go down as a racing incident or a 5 place grid penalty for Vettel, I’d understand both situations. 10 places is a bit steep though.
Kiran Sripathy (@kiransripathy)
2nd October 2016, 12:28
Braked* 🙂
smudgersmith1 (@smudgersmith1)
3rd October 2016, 8:41
Vettel taking out Rosberg taken from my seat in the K1 stand. Sorry for the shouting..Im a Lewis fan !
https://youtu.be/F4mEvA4-Cpo