Formula 1 News

Webber-Vettel collision: Vettel penalised for Chinese GP 

Young rookie Sebastian Vettel, has been given a 10 place grid penalty for the Chinese Grand Prix as a result of his accident with Mark Webber during the Japanese GP today. Vettel ran into the back of Webber’s car which resulted in the retirement of the Australian. Vettel made it to the pit, where he also was forced to retire. The stewards decided, after an investigation, that the rookie driver breached Article 16.1 of the Sporting Regulations for causing a collision.

Mark Webber, extremely disappointed, said: “Vettel was a bit wild behind me during the first safety car period and then did a very good job of hitting me very hard under the second safety car. I think today he will have learnt a very valuable lesson.”

Vettel apologised to Mark Webber for the incident, but is still stuck with the penalty for next week’s race. The German said: “With the final safety car, I was behind Lewis and Mark and exiting Turn 13, I looked to the right and saw Lewis going really slowly, I don’t know why, but I thought he had a problem. Probably he was heating his brakes. Then, by the time I looked forward again, I was already in the back of Mark’s car and I think he had also reacted to Lewis. I apologise now to Mark because I ruined both our races.”