Formula One: Sebastian Vettel still upset over the drive through penalty at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel finished 3rd at the Hungarian Grand Prix and was extremely frustrated after the race. He had been on pole after qualifying on Saturday and after serving a drive through penalty, he dropped down to 3rd.
Vettel was punished by the race Stewards, after he failed to comply with the safety car rule that states that a distance of 10 cars should be maintained with the safety cars.
Sebastian Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber, who had moved into 2nd position after overtaking Alonso, managed to win the race. After the race, Vettel said that maybe during the restart, after the safety cars, he was sleeping!
He said that after the race he was explained as to why he was handed the penalty, but still it is not clear to him because if that had not happened he would have been easy winner.
The German driver served his drive through penalty on the 32nd lap, and came back on the track behind the Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso. Vettel did push the Spaniard hard till the end to get the 2nd spot but Alonso did well to hold on. Vettel finished 3rd and managed to get just 15 points from the race.
Team Red Bull were by far the fastest team on the weekend, and Vettel thought it was juts unfortunate that they had to settle for 1st and 3rd and said that a 1-2 finish would have been the just result. When the safety cars made their way on the tracks, Vettel had already made a 12 second gap between himself and Alonso. Alonso had started the race in 3rd but managed to fight ahead of Webber at the start of the race. Webber however fought back and took the 2nd place and later won the race following Vettel’s drive through penalty.
Vettel is no 3rd in the table, and sits 10 points adrift of his team mate Mark Webber, who reclaimed the top spot in driver standings, and 6 points away from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who is on 2nd.
Sebastian Vettel, after the race was understandably upset and frustrated, he said that he still is bemused about why he was penalised, despite several explanations, he can not make sense of it.
He said that when the race restarted after the Safety cars were exiting the tracks, he probably was waiting for instructions from his pit crew. However, there were no particular instructions from them and he ended up violating the rules. He said that he had been experiencing problems with the car radio and eventually that is what cost him heavily.
He said that he was unable to see the safety car lights, and normally when that happens, the leader has to drop back. He said that when he thought of dropping back, Webber was very close and he thought that maybe there is one more lap for them. Vettel said that he could soon see the safety car coming out so he did loose a lot of momentum.
Vettel said that after he got back in the race behind Alonso, he did all he could to outpace him; he said that on the back of his mind he knew that it was going to be difficult unless Alonso made a mistake. The Red bull driver said that Ferrari cars are very good on the long straights and it’s not that easy to catch them like that.
Mark Webber on the other hand was delighted by the win, and said that his team mate was unlucky but still since he won the race it was good for the team.
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