Sebastian Vettel says stop-and-go penalty was too harsh
Sebastian Vettel insists that the stop-and-go penalty applied to him in Baku after his swerved at Lewis Hamilton was too harsh.
The German insists that Hamilton had brake tested him, and that he should also have been penalized. Vettel eventually finished fourth – ahead of the Mercedes driver, who lost time when he had to have a loose headrest fixed.
“Well we know the leader dictates the pace,” said Vettel. “But we were exiting the corner, he was accelerating then he braked so much that I was braking as soon as I saw, but I couldn’t stop in time and ran in the back of him. I just think that wasn’t necessary.
“I think F1 is for grown ups. As I said the maneuver before was not necessary and he damaged my front wing, damaged also his rear a little bit, so I think that just not the right way to do it, exiting the corner, accelerating and then braking. I don’t think there was any point.”
Regarding the subsequent clash, he said: “I drove alongside, then we had a little contact but I drove alongside mostly to raise my hand, I didn’t give him a finger or anything, I just wanted to tell because I can’t literally talk to him that that was not right.
“I drove alongside him as I said, and raised my hand to say that’s not the way to do it, obviously in that moment, I damaged my front wing and I think he paid a price as well by having slight damage to his car as well. So I think in the end I don’t agree with the penalty that I got, if you penalize me then you should penalize both of us.”
He was adamant that the penalty was not fair.
“I think as I said, if you penalize one you have to penalize both because both were involved, and then I think the penalty was timed in a way we just got out at the same point in the track. I think the penalty was very harsh. Ten seconds stop and go is quite awful when you stand there and have nothing to do.”
Vettel said he would try to clear things up with Hamilton at a later date.
“I don’t have a problem with him. I’m seeing where you are trying to get at. I respect him a lot for the driver he is, now is not the right time to talk because you’re all around. I think I’ll do that just with him and clear it and move on.
“We’re here to race as I said, we’re grown ups and people expect us to race and use our elbows, that’s what people want, here and there you might get a bit close, but people want real overtaking not just us driving past, so after that I had a handful obviously. I enjoyed the race but I don’t think as I said, it’s the right thing that I got a penalty and he didn’t.
“As I said, I’m willing to sort it out with him, I don’t think there’s much to sort out. I’ll talk with him when you are not there and move on. Maybe I’m not clever enough, but I’m not complicated. I don’t think he really wanted to destroy my front wing, I don’t think that was his intention, because he’s also risking damage to his car, easily a puncture and stuff like and his race is over.
“But it was just wrong thing to do so he needs to understands that he can’t do that, we were just exiting the corner so probably me was the one who suffered the most. In the middle of the straight you have a chain reaction, he’s done it a couple of times, a couple of years ago in China where it was very close to having a crash in the back of the field so if you struggle right behind then you’re only going to struggle more in the midfield.”
