24/03/2013
NEWS STORY
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Mat Coch writes:
Sebastian Vettel bullied his way in to the lead of the Malaysian Grand Prix today, ignoring team orders and afterwards attempted to claim he didn't mean to.
Webber was clearly furious and did well not to say something he'd later regret. Vettel however was less nimble in the face of a hostile media conference.
The moments before the post-race press conference were comical as two Red Bull PR staff tried desperately to get to their drivers, clearly looking to diffuse what was about to be an explosive press conference.
With television timetables to keep they were denied access and told in no uncertain terms to take their seat.
The hostile media then unleashed a barrage of questions which made Vettel increasingly uncomfortable.
"I think I did I big mistake today," said the German. "I think we should have stayed in the positions that we were.
"I didn't ignore it on purpose but I messed up in that situation and obviously took the lead," he added. "I want to be honest at least and stick to the truth and apologise."
It's difficult to pass in Formula One. It's even harder to do it by accident.
Claims he didn't realise that he had made a mistake until he took off his helmet are simply untrue, in this writer's humble opinion.
During the heat of combat Red Bull boss Christian Horner could be heard telling his driver to calm down, while on the cool down lap Vettel's engineer 'Rocky' told his driver there would be some explaining to do.
He had some ten laps from when he passed Webber until the end of the race in which to correct his 'mistake' and chose not to.
When Vettel apologised during the press conference it seemed hollow and meaningless, said for the sake of saying it rather than being truly heart-felt.
For once it seemed the Red Bull team supported Webber, though admitted it was all but powerless to do anything to stop Vettel.
"Instruction was given to both cars to hold position," Horner explained after a lengthy post-race debrief with both drivers. "Sebastian has obviously chosen to ignore that.
"He's obviously chosen to hear what he wants to hear," Horner added. "He's a race driver; he's competitive; he's hungry; he hasn't achieved the championships he has by not pushing the limits. He's pushed that today with his teammate and with the team."
"It's very early days right now," said a rather subdued Webber. "It's very raw, obviously, and we need to work out how the team goes forwards from here. That's obviously going to be discussed this week."
Horner admitted that he will hold further discussions with Vettel behind closed doors during the week. Just what action is taken remains to be seen, though the Webber camp won't be holding its breath.
Vettel has done a great deal to damage his reputation today and should be ashamed not only of his poor grace on track but his misrepresentation off it.
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