FIA insist that Sebastian Vettel’s overtake was not illegal – Formula 1 news
The governing body for Formula 1, FIA, has dismissed the speculations against Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel stating that the German driver has committed nothing illegal.
Ferrari had written to the FIA requesting a clarification about Vettel’s overtake of Toro Rosso’s Jean Eric Vergne to which FIA has replied that “there is no case” to answer.
According to Autosport, FIA sources say, “the yellow-flag sector at Interlagos starts at the light panel just before Turn 3, at marshal sector 3, and ends about 150m before Turn 4, where a green light panel is displayed.”
According the FIA regulations if a green flag is waved before a green light board is shown then the green flag is given priority. Since Vettel passed the green flag before making the move to overtake, it makes him free of any case being made against him.
Race steward, Gary Connolly, also refused that Vettel was at mistake stating that it was not the yellow flags under which Vettel had done the overtake but in fact the red and yellow flags which are just used for warning the drivers against weather conditions.
If Vettel had been found guilty, it would have resulted in a 20-second penalty for him and put him in eighth place instead of sixth. This way Ferrari rival Fernando Alonso would have won by one point.
Vettel himself had complained about the dirty tricks played by his rivals but said that they had ignored what other teams had been doing and were focused on their own performance. However, Vettel has admitted that he respects Alonso for his determination.
Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has stated that repeated success over the last three years and making immense progress in a short time of just eight years has definitely made them the target of negativity from other teams.
After the Brazilian GP last Sunday, Vettel has become the youngest triple champion as Alonso lost to him once again in the final race just like it had happened in the 2010 F1 season. Besides that, the combined points of Vettel and teammate Mark Webber have
helped the team win their third consecutive constructors’ title.
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