A British Grand Prix that already had fans on the edges of their seats took a further twist on the 37th lap, when, moments after being passed by Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel locked-up and clattered into the back of the Red Bull at Vale, momentarily causing it to leave the ground.

Though convinced he had suffered major damage, Verstappen was assured his car was fine, while Vettel had to pit for a new front wing.

"What was he doing," asked Vettel over the radio.

"What the ****," commented Verstappen

Though assured the car was fine, from then on it was about holding position for Verstappen, who eventually finished fifth.

In the moments after the race, Vettel went to Verstappen, who was still in his car, and apologised, the pair shaking hands.

"It was my mistake," Vettel subsequently told reporters. "He passed me into Stowe and he ran a bit wide which gave me the chance to come back.

"Then I thought, it looked for a second that he was going to the right and there would be a gap on the left which I was hoping to go in for, but it didn't open and by that time it was already too late and I was too close and I crashed."

Sadly, the incident is a long line of mistakes the German has made over the last year, his calamitous sequence of mishaps beginning in Germany last year, just two weeks after claiming victory at Silverstone.

"Today was really good, I was really happy," said the German. "There were some important moments in the beginning of the race and then we benefited from the safety car to pass the three cars in front.

"It was quite tight between us and Red Bull and I think Max was a bit quicker than us today in the first stint and also in the end of the race. Probably we should have finished fourth but we didn't. I didn't, so I can't be happy with that."

"I guess he misjudged his braking," said Verstappen, "but I already spoke to him, he apologised to me immediately out of the car, and that's it.

"It's disappointing," he added, "but you can't change it now."

"The power steering more or less failed," the Dutchman revealed, "so it was quite a hard work-out for me out there. The seat also popped up so it was moving around a lot. The diffuser was broken, the floor was broken, underneath I could see parts falling off. It was not great.

"The car was not what it should've been, so I’m happy to be fifth."

Shortly after the incident, the stewards deemed that Vettel was "wholly to blame" and handed him a 10s time penalty along with 2 penalty points, bringing his total to 6.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone, here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Tardis40, 16/07/2019 0:42

"That's okay, it was worth it.

Kudos to the TV directors for focusing on the action. "

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Pete, 15/07/2019 22:00

"Yet another Vettel tantrum. He should go back to Red Bull as he has done nothing for Ferrari besides lose driver championships with his errors. Second thoughts, he would look pretty stupid trying to keep up with Verstappen!!!"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by ChickenFarmerF1, 15/07/2019 17:25

"Ferrari should have retained Kimi and demoted Seb to Alfa."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by klmn, 15/07/2019 15:49

"I like Vettel but slowly is going to be a sort of Maldonado."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by *TestaRossa*, 15/07/2019 15:39

"I am sure Seb was ordered to take Ver out ,to get Leclerc in front of Ver.
Leclerc tried earlier to push Ver of the track but failed despite going with four wheels over the white line .
Ferrari are bad losers."

Rating: Negative (-3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by Thunderdownunder , 15/07/2019 10:40

"I think Vettel's mistake was to go for the inside, should of gone around the outside & held the inside into the next corner. BUT, why does VS escape any blame? VS overtook off the racing line & went off track. When he re-entered (safely??) you could see by the onboard vision his only thought was to block. instead of going back to the racing line he checked to see where Vettel was & stayed left. Thats racing you say? Compare it to Canada's incident where the grass run off made it difficult for Vettel to control the car, here VS had tarmac & was clearly in control. In Canada the sentiment was Vettel made the first mistake by running wide & therefore should of yielded position, so whats the difference here.
In Austria when VS punted Leclerc off track the sentiment was Leclerc had already lost the corner, should of yielded, only had himself to blame! Yet when Leclerc does the exact same move VS just nails the throttle off track on the tarmac run off & all the "experts" say great racing. VS also moved more than once to block early in the race when Vettel had a run on him.
I don't doubt his talent but amongst the stewards & the commentators it's different rules for the golden boy.
The scrap between Hamilton & Bottas showed how it should be done, all class."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by Spindoctor, 15/07/2019 8:17

"I continue to believe that Seb has a problem with his eyesight, specifically with depth-perception. "

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

"It was my mistake," admits Vettel

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page