08/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Anyone who thought Sebastian Vettel's Japanese Grand Prix couldn't get much worse would be wrong.
Having pulled out of today's race after just 4 laps as a result of a spark plug issue, thereby allowing title rival Lewis Hamilton to extend his championship lead to 59 points, the German was handed a reprimand.
As he watched his crew trying to resolve his spark plug problem on the grid, Vettel failed to attend the National Anthem ceremony at the required time, a breach of Article 19.4 ii) of the Sporting Regulations, and as a result was handed his first non-driving reprimand of the current season.
There are two types of reprimand, one for a driving offence, the other for a non-driving offence, with three reprimands in a season triggering an automatic 10-place grid penalty for the next race. However, the penalty is only imposed if at least two of the three reprimands are for a driving infringement.
While this was Vettel's first non-driving reprimand of the season, he received a driving reprimand in Monaco for crossing the yellow line at the pit lane exit during qualifying.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka, here.