Formula One news

Vettel 'not happy' with grid penalty

Sebastian Vettel is not satisfied with the penalty that drops him ten places further back from where he qualifies for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver was demoted by governing body the FIA as a result of his collision with Robert Kubica's BMW whilst the pair battled over second place.

"I had a bad run out of Turn 1 and Robert had more speed," said Vettel as he decribed the accident at Sepang. "I was on the soft tyres, which were pretty worn at that stage, and he was on the hard compound. Then, under braking for Turn 3, I was trying to defend my position; I was on the inside and was very cautious to start braking because I didn't know how dirty it was there. He was braking a little bit later. Under braking I was catching up and was more or less side-by-side, then at some stage I noticed that he was pulling to the apex and didn't give me a lot of room - I tried to avoid contact but at that point there was no chance to get out of there, as I was already far to the right and running over the kerb, and then we made contact. I lost my front wing, and after that had no control over the car, so it was a bit of a shame that it meant the end the race for both of us."

Despite the contact both drivers continued, only to lose control of their cars in individual crashes just two corners later. As well as the German receiving the penalty for the incident, his Red Bull team was also handed with a $50,000 fine for instructing their driver to resume the race minus his left-front wheel. "Of course I am not happy with the penalty," Vettel continued. "For me it was a racing incident. Obviously there is no logic behind taking him out of the race - because I took myself out as well - so it is a shame for us as well as him. We had a strong weekend and a strong race, and just a couple of laps more to finish it - we didn't make it, so of course it is a shame. I think we took a good car to Australia and have one here as well. The circuit is slightly different and the weather is not good at the moment, so let's see what happens on Sunday. We will push very hard to get the best possible result."

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