Sebastian Vettel has been penalised for his move on Daniel Ricciardo in today's Mexican Grand Prix.

In the final stages of what had been a fairly uneventful race, things suddenly sprang to life as Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, both on fresher rubber, closed on third placed Max Verstappen.

As the German battled with the Dutch youngster, the Red Bull driver ran wide rejoining the track still ahead of the Ferrari. Though there was no immediate word from the stewards he was advised by his team to yield the position but he refused to do so.

As he maintained his position, and Vettel grew increasingly frustrated, Ricciardo closed in and began his assault on the Ferrari.

While Vettel accused Verstappen of brake-testing him in Turns 1 and 2, as the trio headed into Turn 4 Ricciardo made a move on Vettel which resulted in the two touching, the Australian subsequently claiming that the German moved under braking, ironically a charge which has been consistently levelled at Verstappen since the summer break.

"I felt that Seb did what everyone has been complaining about lately, moving under braking," Ricciardo subsequently told Sky Sports. "I saw he defended half way down the straight, I was going to go to the outside, and then it just looked like he opened it so I committed to the inside. I thought I had every right to be there, and then he just kept closing the door under braking. I locked the brakes trying to avoid contact, but he just kept closing so in the end I had nowhere to go. I was frustrated with that.

"Don't get me wrong, I love racing," he continued, "I love racing hard, I love seeing locking brakes and even a bit of contact is fine, but this whole moving under braking, if you're going to defend, you commit early and that's it. You don't do it once you've already been outfoxed. I feel like that's what I did today, Seb was there, he moved, I went, I won the chess match if you like.

"And then he's like 'oh, I screwed up, and now I'm going to try and repair my mistake'. For me that's not right."

Clearly the stewards agreed, for after talking to both drivers and viewing various video evidence they handed Vettel a 10s time penalty deeming that he had made an "abnormal change of direction" that was "potentially dangerous".

Justifying their decision, which sees Vettel drop to fifth, behind the two Red Bull drivers, in their directive the stewards explained that: "Notwithstanding the F1 Commission directive to 'let the drivers race' we note the concern that has been expressed about manoeuvres involving a change of direction under braking as expressed at the drivers briefing at the US Grand Prix and in the race director's notes from the US Grand Prix and this event.

"The telemetry and video evidence shows that the driver of car 5 (Vettel) did change direction under braking.

"Article 27.5 and the race director's notes have essentially three criteria that determine a breach; driving in a manner potentially dangerous, an abnormal change of direction and another driver having to take evasive action.

"The video footage, including the close circuit footage, the broadcast vision, both drivers' on board cameras plus the telemetry show that there was an abnormal change of direction by car 5 and this was considered to be potentially dangerous in view of the proximity of the wheels of each car.

"The video evidence clearly shows that car 3 (Verstappen) had to take evasive action as a result.

"Accordingly as all three criteria have been met, the driver of car 5 is guilty of a breach of article 27.5."

Vettel was also given two penalty points.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by SideGlance, 02/11/2016 15:35

"Stoney, Completely agree, plus there is generally a time delay anyhow, so no one can 'censor' a 1 sec 'bad' word ? Incompetence is the word !!

Seb vs D.R. tire knock is EXACTLY the kind of close racing we ALL wish for - or I thought !!

How on earth can you have aggressive close fighting and not expect tire touchings ? Idiotic to think NOT !!

Way Way too subjective and honestly VERY unfair IMO, FIA needs much better consistency !! And also NOT so dangerous not like doing it at 300k speeds - that would be dangerous.

Where is the actual perspective on these things - not rational IMO !!

Who the H$$$ wants a single file race ? More BORING S$$t racing ?!!!"

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2. Posted by stoney, 01/11/2016 9:39

"One important thing to remember in the whole radio saga: between Vettel and the TV audience is a TV Director.

Before people starting asking questions about whether Vettel should be thinking about the children at home when he speaks on the radio, perhaps they should ask the question to the TV Director who decided to put that out there. Am completely confused as to why there's such a Vettel-bashing..."

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3. Posted by Canuck, 31/10/2016 20:50

"I feel that the penalty to Vettel for moving under braking is totally undeserved as others have said. If you look at previous examples (Verstappen) move quickly to make an obvious blocking maneuver. Vettel made a slow move onto his racing line as Ricciardo was well behind him as contact was front wheel to rear wheel. I do believe that 100% of drivers enter their racing line applying the brakes through to the apex and then throttling. That means that all drivers are moving in on the racing line under breaking. And Vettel did leave enough room for Ricciardo to turn in also.

Therefore Vettel is penalized abusive language directed at Charlie and the FIA delegates overlooking the enforcement of the over-regulated F1. If Reciardo really wanted to pass, he should have short-cutted the corner a la Verstappen and Hamilton.

The only positive that may come out of this is that drivers may think before hitting the radio button"

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4. Posted by phantom, 31/10/2016 20:40

"What's next? Going to court to decide the results of a race? I've just watched my last F1 race. To Charley W.: '%&#k it!'"

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5. Posted by NS Biker, 31/10/2016 15:23

"Given that Hamilton has shown that First lap Track Limits are "somewhat flexible", I would suggest that there will need to be some repaving done (at many tracks) as EVERYONE will now start taking advantage of this little maneuver.
That is unless the application of track limits is team or driver dependent."

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6. Posted by Roland, 31/10/2016 15:12

"What goes around comes around.
So, it’s obvious only the fastest cars must win? The F1 sport is raped by regulations and the big automobile brands manipulate the FIA, a scandal; Ayrton Senna will turn in his grave. The art and bravery of racing has become a set of rules, F1 has always been my favorite Racing event for more than 50 years, bah, a bad taste is left behind after that statement from Mr. Whiting last week in Austin; puppets of Mercedes and Ferrari and crybabies like Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel should be ashamed of themselves, you dig a hole for someone else and fall in it yourself (Way too many regulation). Btw. Hamilton should have received the same penalty as Max for going off track. The bottom line; Max Verstappen has more balls and talent in his teenage years than the whole circus together. A new Senna or maybe better is born, time will tell, the fans and public love his style, a teen with the heart of a lion; refreshing because F1 has become boring! Big Kudos Max from an old boy that spend some time on the racing grounds.
"

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7. Posted by Roope, 31/10/2016 15:09

"The penalties to both Verstappen and Vettel are ok. However, one more penalty is missing. Its the one to Hamilton, who committed exactly the same error as Verstappen, i.e. cutting the second corner across the grass. Had Hamilton kept the car on track by slowing down three or four cars would have passed him before turn two. Even though the virtual safety was declared moments after, the move allowed him to hold track position. So he significantly gained by going off track!

Moreover, FIA needs to do something about the frequent use of foul language! Although not the only one, Vettel's burst of expletives to competitors, including to Charlie, were totally unacceptable. There are millions of children watching the F1 races. This kind of behavior puts F1 in disrepute."

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8. Posted by Pavlo, 31/10/2016 14:57

"To everybody who thinks that Vettel was penalized for his words - ok, then why stewards didn't openly penalize him for words? Whatever punishment would be fair in this case.
But it's obvious to everybody, that Vettel blocked Ricciardo just because Max who was blocking him and breaking the rules is Ricciardo's teammate. So it's obvious to me, that if you wish to penalize Vettel, you have to penalize Verstappen more."

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9. Posted by stoney, 31/10/2016 12:46

"Given Vettel should have been in 3rd, not 4th - and was waiting from guidance from the race director to correct the fact...
Given that he was was being pushed back into Ricciardo by the guy who wouldn't move over - I fully feel for the guy...!

Penalty completely unjustified
Radio outburst completely understandable, given the circumstances, adrenaline and emotion

That the press is stirring it up into bringing the sport into disrepute is a joke..."

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10. Posted by Mugmug, 31/10/2016 10:42

"F1 is so over-regulated we might as well make it autonomous (racing) and let computers and Charlie Whiting decide who wins the races. The days of ballsy moves and exciting passes are over along with the sounds of real engines screaming, giving one goose-bumps. I don't bother watching the races anymore because it's not Racing anymore, (used to go to 2 races a year) I just wait till the next day to see who got penalized and to see what new regulation or rule got implemented. Exciting Yes? "

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11. Posted by klmn, 31/10/2016 10:25

"these insults to Charlie should be punished with a race ban.

Vettel is a good driver but a very bad loser."

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12. Posted by testa rossa, 31/10/2016 9:01

"Hope Vettel is not becoming such a big whiner like Alonso."

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13. Posted by ryanhellyer, 31/10/2016 8:51

"I suspect this punishment has more to do with his being a jack **** over the radio than his on track activities."

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14. Posted by Pavlo, 31/10/2016 8:36

"10 seconds for blocking the overtake, 5 seconds for cutting the track. Breaking the rules (not locking the driver who has the right to overtake) to let your teammate overtake him - no penalty. They either are complete idiots or paid by RBR. Most likely idiots."

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15. Posted by -ape-, 31/10/2016 8:31

"Bernie is happy.
"

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Vettel penalised, loses third place

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