Vettel attack receives short shrift

Monday 23 July 2012

Sebastian Vettel slated Lewis Hamilton for being "a bit stupid", but come the conclusion of yesterday's German Grand Prix it was the home favourite who emerged as the foolish one.

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In front of his fans at Hockenheim, Vettel celebrated finishing runner-up to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who is the first driver this season to win three races.

But around two hours later the 25-year-old was hauled before the stewards and handed a retrospective drive-through penalty which added 20 seconds to his finishing time. Vettel had been found guilty of exceeding track limits following a move on McLaren's Jenson Button on the penultimate lap to move up to second.

The end result was Vettel found himself demoted to fifth, losing eight valuable points in his bid to win a third successive world title.For Button, who finally brought an end to his miserable run in which he had collected just seven points from the previous six races, justice was served."Sebastian's pass was a pretty straightforward matter: the rules state you can't go off the track to gain an advantage," said Button. "The thing is, there would have been more opportunities for him before the end of the race as my rear tyres were damaged."Explaining his actions, Vettel said: "I wasn't sure he was still on the side of me or not, I can't see from the inside of the car, so I tried to give him enough room and went wide."The only intention was not to crash and to give him enough room. Although it was good to be on the podium at the home race, I have to respect the steward's decision."Vettel also drew short shrift from Hamilton and team principal Martin Whitmarsh for his unwise criticism of the 27-year-old.On the occasion of his 100th grands prix, Hamilton sustained a lap-two puncture after running over debris caused by Felipe Massa losing the front wing of his Ferrari when he hit the back of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the race.The slow trundle back to the pits and early stop relegated the Briton to 22nd, and a fight for respectability.Hamilton's second stop on lap 33 dropped him in among the leaders, a lap down. On fresh rubber, and although effectively a backmarker, given the speed of his McLaren he tried to unlap himself by first passing second-placed Vettel, who waved his hand at Hamilton in disgust."That was not nice of him," Vettel said. "I don't see why he tried to race us. If he wants to drive fast then he can drop back, find a gap and go fast then. But it was a bit stupid to disturb the leaders. "If you are a lap down and with no chance of winning the race any more, you should respect that and use common sense."Hamilton was terse and somewhat sarcastic in his response. "Maturity has come through I guess," he said. "It shows his maturity."As for Whitmarsh, he naturally defended Hamilton. "He was quicker, overtook and pulled away, so I'm not quite sure of the stupidity."Even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner could offer no defence of Vettel's comment, remarking: "It was an unusual situation that Lewis was on fresh tyres, he was a lap down, and in Sebastian's opinion what happened affected his race. That's frustrating but within the rules; he [Hamilton] did nothing wrong."Hamilton, though, had to retire on lap 57 with damage sustained to the car following his earlier puncture. So it was left to Button to uphold McLaren's honour, yet despite pulling to within 0.6secs of Alonso, there was no way past the 30 -year-old Spaniard, who now has a 34-point cushion over Red Bull's Mark Webber, who could only finish eighth.Vettel now finds himself 44 points behind, with Hamilton and Button 62 and 86 points adrift respectively.With Vettel's penalty, Raikkonen was elevated to third, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi a career-best fourth.Force India's Paul di Resta finished just outside the points in 11th.

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Vettel attack receives short shrift

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