Vettel at centre of blame game after Italian GP controversy
Sebastian Vettel has come under fire for the lap one controversy at the Italian Grand Prix that the Ferrari driver blamed on title rival, Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel insisted the fault for the incident – that saw him spin out on the opening lap at Monza – lay with the Mercedes driver.
The four-time champion German said he felt championship leader Hamilton did not leave him enough room when the pair clashed at the second chicane.
The collision resulted in Vettel spinning his Ferrari and damaging the front wing while Hamilton’s car survived undamaged and he went on to win the race and increase his championship lead to 30 points.
“Lewis saw a little bit around the outside, but he didn’t leave me any space,” said Vettel. “I had no other chance, but to run into him and make contact.
“It is a bit ironic that it was that way. I tried to pass Kimi and then he came. I left him space, but it was me who was the one who spun around.
“He didn’t leave me any space. There was no option. I made contact and I was spun around. Then we were at the back and had to come back.”
The race stewards investigated and ruled the crash a normal “racing incident” that merited no further action.
In a further blow to Vettel, several experienced paddock observers and media pundits all agreed that Hamilton was not to blame for the incident.
His former team-mate, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg, said it was entirely Vettel’s fault.
“I think it was 100 percent Sebastian’s fault,” Rosberg told Sky F1. “Lewis left him enough room.
“Over and over, he keeps making these mistakes and that’s not how you are going to beat Lewis Hamilton to a world championship.”
The 1996 champion Damon Hill said the German had “cracked under pressure.”
After calling into the pits, Vettel fought back through the field to finish fourth, partly thanks to Max Verstappen of Red Bull taking a five-second time penalty for a brush with Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes.
Hamilton had started third, behind Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel on the starting grid, and yet he beat them both to stretch his championship lead to 30 points with seven races remaining.
Monza is the one race a Ferrari driver always has to win and none has done that since 2010. The wait will now go on for another year.
“Here there was a lot of negativity, as there is when you’re against an opposing team,” Hamilton said as a throng of fans invaded the track and filled the start-finish straight with their red flags and flares.
“In future, the negativity is really a positive thing for me because I harness it and turn it from negative to positive,” added the 33-year-old, who also paid tribute to his fans for holding firm.
“I know I’ve got those individuals who are out there who travel the world to support me. I know they’re there,” he told reporters.
“I’m really really proud of them, because obviously when you’re in a big sea of red and there’s the booing and… you notice there’s one guy standing there with a flag or there’s a kid waving it and you can imagine being surrounded by that, feeling the heat on him,” he said.
Hamilton’s win equalled the number achieved by Ferrari great Michael Schumacher at Monza, a circuit where Mercedes have won for the last five years.
The Briton has many admirers in Italy too, even if Monza is more about demonstrating passion for Ferrari than the sport itself, and he refused to criticise the crowd for their response.
“It doesn’t offend me, no. There’s nothing to get offended by,” he said, even if he had never himself booed anyone or any team.
“It happens in all sports. It definitely happens in football and probably here more than I’ve noticed in others but it is the way it is,” added the Briton.
“It is very, very easy to allow it to get to you, to allow it to have an impact on your life and have you think about it, all these different things. But it is also quite easy to harness it and use it and that gave me so much motivation today.
“I welcome it. If they want to continue to do it, that just empowers me.”
With agencies
