Sweary Vettel to escape sanction after apology to FIA

“Honestly, f**k off”, he said, after the race director failed to inform Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to move over for Vettel after the pair came close to clashing during an attempted overtake, where the Dutchman cut Turn 1 in order to maintain third place.

Vettel was initially awarded third, but later penalized 10 seconds for unsafe driving.

The video footage, including the close circuit footage, the broadcast vision, both drivers’ onboard cameras plus the telemetry show that there was an abnormal change of direction by auto 5 and this was considered to be potentially risky in view of the proximity of the wheels of each vehicle. He was told to forgo the position to the Ferrari but never did, so Vettel was awarded the podium.

But Rosberg only has to do what he’s doing – coming second to Hamilton – in the next two races to tie up the title, and short of someone running Rosberg off the track in the next two races its seems the title is going to be Rosberg’s.

His aggressive outbursts continued when he was informed by team radio the incident would be examined after the race as he vented his rage at both Verstappen and Whiting. It’s definitely an unusual scenario to be in but I’ve just got to push all the way to the end. They are under investigation. I obviously knew that Daniel is quite jumpy and sometimes a bit optimistic with these kind of situations, which partly fair enough, we’re racing and for him it’s a podium to grasp.

He said: “Nico clearly was in front and Verstappen rams him off the track”.

Talking about the incident in which went off at Turn One and rejoined, he said: “I think it is pretty similar to what happened when Lewis went off and got a massive advantage and when Nico went off, when we touched (on the opening lap). On my defense, I was fighting hard, and trying to give him some space, which I think I did”. It was not the first time the German has used bad language on radio – he was forgiven by Fernando Alonso for calling the Spaniard an idiot during practice for the Mexico GP. This is exactly what I would have said to him.

“He (Verstappen) is a ****”, Vettel yelled over the team radio.

“I think it’s very refreshing how he drives”.

“You know what, here is the message for Charlie”, he then added, with more swearing of a graphic nature.

The three drivers became embroiled in a post-race war of words over the two incidents, which occurred in the race’s final three laps.

Horner feels that his latest outburst stems from his frustration over a hard season, which saw Ferrari start as favourites to challenge Mercedes, but fell behind Red Bull in terms of being the closest challengers to the Silver Arrows team.