Not surprisingly Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has leaped to the defence of Sebastian Vettel after the German’s scrappy race at Spa.
Horner insists that Vettel’s controversial clash with Jenson Button at Spa was triggered when the McLaren driver braked earlier than Seb had expected for the chicane.
Vettel, who wasn’t actually trying to pass, lost control and slammed into the side of the McLaren. The damage put Button out of the race. The FIA later handed Vettel a drive through penalty for causing an avoidable collision, and the consensus in the paddock was that the German had screwed up in a major way. However Horner says he was caught out by Button’s braking point.
“Jenson’s in a difficult position at the head of the queue, knowing where to judge his braking point,” said Horner. “Obviously he braked what looked like earlier than Sebastian suspected, and in taking avoiding action he got the rears locked up over the bump, and it put him into a spin. He didn’t intentionally hit Jenson, it was one of those things.
“He was eager to get past Jenson because he was holding him up a lot and he could see that Lewis was getting away. The rain had just started, and I think the braking point that Jenson adopted, as it had just started to rain, took him by surprise. It’s as simple as that.”
Horner says that the team was happy to have salvaged a second place with Mark Webber.
“We know this circuit and Monza will be McLaren territory, we just have to limit the damage, as we managed to do with Mark today, and actually as a team to come away with a second place is still a very good result for us.”
Adam Cooper F1 
why is it that when a rebull crashes into someone else, they blame the other person’s brake point? Shouldn’t they be paying attention? Vettel apologised this time, which would lead me to believe he felt it was his fault.
Horner says Vettel wasn;t going for an overtake, but it looked fairly clear to me (and the Stewards).
That old chestnut… grr!
Breaking early to make the corner in the wet, I think. Even Vettel himself admitted that, so why can’t Horner just let it be.
Vettel clearly (from on-board) looked on the right of Button, saw there was no space, went back to left, and lost it because he forgot that Button needed to break earlier than in the dry. Not intentional, but not very professional either.
Button insists that section was dry.
Of course he’d say something like that when clearly his idiot driver made a huge mistake in his braking distances in the wet.
Its what separates champions like Button from whining, petulant teenagers like Vettel.
I thinks the best word for Sebastian Vetttel at this stage of his career is Callow.
Here is the dictionary explanation of this word:
–adjective1.immature or inexperienced: a callow youth.2.(of a young bird) featherless; unfledged.
–noun3.a recently hatched worker ant.
-Synonyms 1.untried, green, raw; naive, puerile, jejune.
Says it all really….
Ridiculous penalty. He had to make an emergency maneuver and the back end stepped out.
Indeed, WTH wasn’t Barrichello flagged for creaming Alonso. Now that was an “idiot” move.
Why wasn’t Barrichello penalised you ask?
Maybe it had something to do with the 3-wheeled Williams that was pulled back behind the fence a minute or so after the accident???
Maybe they should have had Rubens run down the pits to serve a penalty???
And I would hardly call it an ’emergency maneuver’…
“Vettel, who wasn’t actually trying to pass, lost control and slammed into the side of the McLaren”
he wasnt trying to pass … anyways losing control and hitting someone isnt the same as hitting someone straight on . that penalty doesn’t seem to support overtaking in f1 anyway
What a load of codswallop Christian, Vettle knew it was starting to rain the same as all the other drivers & thought he could overtake Jensen before the start straight as he knew once Jensen got on to the straight, he would be stuck behind him for another lap so tried the inside, saw it was blocked, so tried the outside & ran out of track before Jensen broke, Vettle then lost control ‘again’ & side swiped Jensen out of the race!!
I’m sorry to say this but Vettle is going to cause a very serious accident one day with his driving ability & should have been disqualified for that, Schuey was given a 10 place penalty for ‘almost causing’ an accident with Rubens, Vettle gets a drive thru penalty for ‘actually ‘causing an accident, just show the favouritism towards Red Bull by the stewards!!!
He then went on to hit another driver later & get a puncture, thats after his ‘drive thru’ penalty, he made 5 trips to the pit due to tire wear & should have been stopped as he was a danger to all the other drivers on the track yesterday, its the red mist you see when things aren’t going his way!!!
u know … that post makes it look like there is only vettel driving in that race.
“he went and hit another driver later in the race” … wow … since when did hitting someone puncture your tyre . it usually is the other way round . someone hits you and cuts your tyre
Yes, that was Luizzi also being a bit too agressive. But I am getting the feeling that Vettel is a bit too often the one to think he is the only “real” car on track, not allowing for others to need some space too – he did not give Liuzzi much space there either.
Christian Horner is really coming across like an idiot with his statements this year supporting Vettel.
For a supposedly intelligent man, he certainly does not act like one.
As regards Vettel getting a puctured rear tyre, well, from the camera angle that I saw on TV here, it would appear that Vettel chopped across in from of Luizzi far too early after that pass.
Both Vetter and Horner need to grow up.
I hope Weber wins the championship as its probably his only chance, but, I just wish it wasn’t with Red Bull. ( The real stuff is only 10 baht a bottle in BangkoK …… US$0.30 )
For all the drama with Vettel this year (much of it self-imposed in my view), I love that Webber keeps his head-down, drives hard and continues to out-score his teammate. I am pulling for him to win it all. That would give us 5 WCs on the grid next year.
Well according to Mr Whitmarsh Button did not brake early and that their data backs it up. Why do Red Bull come with this crap when there driver made a huge mistake. Vettel is quick but accident prone. Has the quickest car and should be miles in front of everyone but has so stop making mistake and when he does be honest about it. Only really great champions lose gracefully something Vettel will need if he wants to be considered a great driver.
I just read bull…