17/11/2019
NEWS STORY
Interlagos stewards deem that no further action is required following today's incident involving Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.
Moments after the Monegasque had passed the German in Turn 1, Vettel, courtesy of DRS, swept past the youngster on the back straight.
However, the two cars touched and though the collision was minor both were out on the spot, bringing out the safety car for the second time.
The stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from both drivers and determined that both had the opportunity to avoid or mitigate the incident and therefore that neither driver was predominantly at fault.
"I didn't have much space to the right and obviously had a better run out of Turn 3 and tried to pass, that's it," said Vettel.
"He started to squeeze me a little bit to the inside," countered Leclerc, "and we were very close. Everything happened very quickly, and as soon as he went to the inside we touched.
"I'm pretty sure we are mature enough to put that behind us," he added.
"I think the drivers need to feel sorry for the team," Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports, "because at the end, they were free to fight. Free to fight but they know that silly mistakes are something we should avoid for the team itself.
"Today it has been a very small contact I have to say," he added, "but there will be time to analyse it, there will be time to look at the video, I don't want to do that in the heat (of the moment).
"With the drivers, I had already a chat with them and I don't want to judge now, they should not judge now, there will be a time to do it all together."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.