Verstappen mocks critics after Vettel error
By: RACER Staff | 2 hours ago
Max Verstappen mocked critics of his driving when discussing Sebastian Vettel’s first-lap error in the French Grand Prix, saying the Ferrari driver should ignore comments from the media.
Vettel hit Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1 on the opening lap at Paul Ricard, giving the Mercedes driver a puncture and breaking his own front wing that left both well down the order. The German was given a five-second time penalty for the incident — something Niki Lauda said was too lenient — and went on to finish fifth, two positions ahead of Bottas.
The top three drivers were all asked for their thoughts about the severity of the penalty, and Verstappen suggested Vettel should receive similar criticism to the level he received after crashing in Monaco.
“Yeah, I think next time you see Seb you should ask him to change his style, obviously it’s not acceptable!” Verstappen said. “That’s what they said to me in the beginning of the season, I think you should do the same, and of course Seb shouldn’t do anything — he should just drive again and learn from this and go on. That’s my advice to everyone in this room.”
Max Verstappen (Image by Steven Tee/LAT)
While his initial response had been light-hearted in tone before becoming more serious, when later asked about those comments and if he feels Vettel is treated differently to himself, Verstappen replied: “I think they shouldn’t do it [criticize] at all.
“I mean, mistakes happen in life, and it happens for the best of us as you can see today. So, to be honest, yeah: it just makes me angry because for sure it won’t be as bad on him than it was to me. And all the time they said to me that I should change my approach, and all these stupid comments, but yeah, I didn’t change a thing and now everything is going right. So mistakes happen, and it’s all right, we’re all human.
“At the end of the day they will never get the last laugh because I know what to do, but it’s just annoying.”
Lewis Hamilton went on to win after the collision directly behind him, and the new championship leader suggested Vettel’s penalty should have been big enough to prevent him beating Bottas.
“I’ve not seen it in detail but they quickly played something back there,” Hamilton said. “I saw an image of it on-screen. For me it’s disappointing because for the team we had the chance to get a one-two, and … it’s always an incredible feeling to get a one-two, that’s the ultimate goal within the team. Valtteri had really done a solid job all weekend, as he has really been doing this year.
“I mean, we’re all going into Turn 1 as hard as we could but yeah, ultimately when someone destroys your race through an error and it’s only kind-of a tap on the hand really, and just allowed to come back and still finish ahead of that person that they took out, it doesn’t weigh up, y’know?
“Ultimately, he shouldn’t really be able to finish ahead of him, because he took him out of the race. But, yeah… that’s the call they made.”
-Chris Medland
Vettel apologizes to Bottas for first-lap clash
By: RACER Staff | 35 minutes ago
Sebastian Vettel apologized to Valtteri Bottas for the collision on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix that left the Finn only able to finish seventh.
Running side-by-side toward Turn 1, Bottas attempted to sweep around the outside of Vettel, who was unable to try and outbrake the Mercedes as he had Lewis Hamilton directly ahead of him. Vettel then locked up and ran into the left rear corner of Bottas’ car, giving him a puncture and breaking the front wing on the Ferrari.
After receiving a five-second time penalty for the incident, Vettel climbed back through the field to finish fifth ahead of Bottas in seventh, and says he apologized for the collision after the race.
“My start was very good, but then I had no place to go,” Vettel said. “I tried to get out of it, but in Turn 1 obviously we got very tight. I was very close to Lewis in front and Valtteri tried to obviously get his position back. He was under pressure from Max [Verstappen], I think, as far as I saw as well. And then I had no grip, lost the car, couldn’t open and disappear, because there were people and obviously Valtteri was the one that I hit.
Image by Dunbar/LAT
“In the end, there wasn’t that much I could have done different. Just the wrong place. Obviously what you don’t see is that I lose a lot of grip and I saw it and I was aware of the two cars running around the outside trying to get their position on me because I was stuck. But I couldn’t slow down more than I did and obviously lost the car and hit Valtteri, so I guess the rule is causing a collision and that’s what I did because I lost the car.
“But was it intentional? Certainly not, because it could as well have been the end of the race for me. Obviously for Valtteri it was very bad because it affected his race and he had nothing to do with it, so I went to him after the race.
“Given the situation, how tight it was, I think we were both lucky in a way to be able to continue like I said. Little bit different and [his suspension might have failed]. From there, obviously we had a good recovery but it wasn’t the race we wanted.”
Elaborating on his approach to the corner, Vettel says he was only marginally too late on the brakes and would not have run wide had there not been a car on his outside.
“It was not the line, I think I wasn’t braking where I was braking for qualifying. I knew I was on the inside and I was trying to get out of it. As soon as I saw I was stuck, but it obviously wasn’t enough so I think on my own, there’s no problem at all that I make the corner, but obviously with a car right in front and the car also next to you, you lose a lot of grip. Obviously it caught me out.
“In the end, the way I look at it with hindsight, I would have liked to have a worse start, because then it would have been more straightforward, I wouldn’t be in that position. I haven’t seen it yet so I will look at it again, but from the inside it didn’t feel or didn’t appear that there was a lot I could have done differently. I tried to get out of it.
“Obviously you don’t hit the brakes 200 meters before the corner just because you think it could be a bad spot to be in, you still try to be competitive. But to be honest, I wasn’t attacking first, I was aware that Valtteri, and even I saw Max, would have a run around the outside because I’m stuck. But obviously it wasn’t enough but it’s just one of those things that sometimes goes wrong.”
–Chris Medland
