Sebastian Vettel dropped to fifth place because of penalty at Hockenheim – Formula 1 news
Sebastian Vettel has been penalised for overtaking Jenson Button while all his four wheels were off the circuit, during the German Grand Prix, at Hockenheim this past Sunday.
There was a street fight between the two drivers for the second and third place. Despite trying a lot, the German driver was unable to cross the British driver. In the second last lap of the German GP, Vettel crossed Button, when his car was on the painted
area, which is not allowed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) regulations.
The British driver radioed his team to report this to the FIA. It was confirmed by FIA that the incident would be investigated after the race.
After two hours of race, it was reported that Vettel was penalised for 20 seconds because of making an unlawful overtake at turn 6. This penalty resulted in moving Button, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi up one place and the German Driver was dropped
to fifth place.
Vettel believes that it is not an advantage to the driver if he tries to accelerate over the painted area rather than accelerating on the circuit. Moreover, he said that he had already crossed the British driver but the opponent was not giving up.
Furthermore, he said that he had more speed than Button, because he applied the brakes later. Therefore, he was forced to overtake from the painted area after he crossed the hairpin as he was trying to avoid the accident by giving him some more room.
Vettel Says, “I think clearly it's not an advantage if you try to accelerate on the paint rather than on the circuit. So as I said the only intention was not to crash and to give him enough room. I had the nose, I was a little bit in front because I was
braking later and then I was pretty sure he was not giving up like that!”
The British driver said that the rules clearly state that the drivers are not allowed to go off the track during the race. He further added that the rear tyres of his car were damaged and Vettel would have had more chances to get ahead of him by the end
of race.
“Sebastian's pass was a pretty straightforward matter: the rules state you can't go off the track to gain an advantage,” said Button.
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