Far from Hamilton, Vettel incriminates Verstappen for his collision

As Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) has a string of successes, his great adversary Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) accumulates disappointing results. Unable to catch up with the Silver Arrow in Singapore and Russia, the German once again lost big points on the leader of the general classification in Suzuka (Japan) with a meager sixth place.

Author of a driving error in qualifying (after his team opted for a poor tire strategy), the four-time world champion was only supposed to start from eighth position. The departure could not have gone better, since the car red was in fourth place after the touch between Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) at the chicane.

Emboldened by an overrun on Romain Grosjean (Haas) braking on the Spoon curve, Sebastian Vettel attempted an optimistic maneuver on the Red Bull in the same place on the eighth lap. Gone from afar, Ferrari hit the side of the Dutchman's machine, spun, and fell to last position.

Gradually returning to the leading pack, Sebastian Vettel concluded the day several tens of seconds behind his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, sixth. In the radio, the German asked his team for forgiveness during his deceleration lap.

“If I don’t go for that gap and the gap was there, might as well stay at home”

Listen to Sebastian Vettel's radio message to his team after a #JapaneseGP that saw his title hopes all but disappear pic.twitter.com/XfZNvXM6W5

— Formula 1 (@F1) 7th October, 2018

“Okay, there’s not much to add. I think enough has already been said. I don't know. If I don't go to space (inside the corner where Max Verstappen was standing), while there is space, then it is better to stay at home. »

In the paddock, the wearer of number 5 continued his thoughts. “I was attacking to overtake him, but I wasn’t desperate either. There was room. But as soon as he saw me, he went into “defense” mode, but I was holding the rope. As soon as he understands that someone is standing near him or at his side, he tries, in my opinion, to resist when it is too late. »

Sebastian Vettel therefore considers himself absolutely not responsible for this racing incident, which did not give rise to the slightest punishment by the stewards. “It’s normal that sometimes it’s tight but I think you always have to leave a margin and in this specific case I had no other place to go. So we touched each other.

Some believe that Sebastian Vettel could wait to obtain DRS on the main straight to attempt an attack, especially since Max Verstappen had to observe a five-second penalty (after the collision with Kimi Räikkönen). « I knew he was penalized but I felt we were faster. I caught him, I had a good restart at the hairpin. »

Relegated to 67 points behind Lewis Hamilton, the bearer of all the Scuderia's hopes could definitely say goodbye to his title dreams in two weeks in Austin (Texas)…

Find the analysis of the Japanese GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2186 of AUTOhebdo, available Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.