Sebastian Vettel has been given a 20s penalty for exceeding the track limits when passing Jenson Button for second place in the closing stages of the German GP.
He was deemed to have left the track and gained an advantage, and was given the equivalent of a drive through penalty.
The penalty puts the German down to fifth place, and leaves the top four as Alonso, Button, Raikkonen and Kobayashi.
Before he got the penalty Vettel had said: “I wasn’t sure where he was, I couldn’t see him, to be honest, at that moment, and then decided to give him enough space and decided to go off line on the slippery paint and still was able to stay ahead.
“I think clearly it’s not an advantage if you try to accelerate the paint rather than on the circuit. As I said the only intention was not to crash and give him enough room.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Hmm baby, now that’s not what I’m talking about. Is it my impression of Germans still regard Schum as THEIR champion and Vettel has no value whatsoever to an ordinary German F1 fan/ventilator, not to mention local race officials.
errrr, there should be just one national steward, the rest are not Germans… Actually for Hockenheim stewards were Swiss, American and Englishman if I am correct
Could be, all I’m saying is F1 stewards are inconsistent. Such a manoeuvre on the same spot in the DTM would cause no problems at all, I can see why Seb was cautious – probably Spa 2010 memories are still fresh. Anyway, it would’ve been easier to give the position back and score more points for the championship.
FIA – I don’t even wanna discuss this masonic lodge, totally uncapable of organizing anything at all, a bunch of Brezhnevs and Honeckers decorating and kissing each other.
Red Bull were greedy, the penalty was obvious at the time of the incident. He should have given the place back and had another go. At worst he would have got 3rd place.
I agree, he gave it a shot and got called on it. The excuse that passing on the paint is harder than dry pavement is ridiculous on the face of it. He was having a hard time getting past Button and he needed to go off the track a bit to do so end of story.
Yeah. Right Seb.
I think the real story here is missed. Vettel ended up behind Button because of a backmarker intentionally getting in his way. The backmarker, as you all know, was Jensons teamate. Fernando noted this during his interview mentioning how the addition of Hamilton between he and Vettel added a second to his lead.
Whilst unlapping yourself isn’t illegal I do believe that getting in the way of cars on the lead lap is, and if you do so in a race of such fine margins it can, and did, have a real impact.
If that hadn’t happend perhaps Button wouldn’t have had his car infront of Vettels after McLarens supreme pitstop.
I did think there was an FIA rule saying that it was the responsibility of lapped cars to remain out of the way of cars on the lead lap? In fact this very rule was used to give Karthikeyan a penalty in Malaysia. I believe I also heard Martin Brundle mention words to this effect when a backmarker in a recent race got involved with cars on the lead lap.
So whilst I believe that yes, Vettels pass on Button wasn’t exactly fair and sqaure (that said JB didn’t leave SV a cars width on the exit… go figure the rules on that), I do believe that perhaps McLaren, and Hamilton specifcally was lucky not to recieve a drive-thru penalty for his actions. He and Mclaren robbed us of a fight between Vettel and Alonso as the Ferrari’s tyres faded faster than that of the Red Bull. Disappointing from a racing fans perspective and disappointing from a fair play perspective also.
When a blue flag is shown, you have two choices – get out of the way or speed up. Lewis did the latter. There is no rule about not unlapping yourself.
I’m aware of that, and that wasn’t what I was suggesting.
It was suggested by Martin Brundle (I think at the Barcelona GP) that there was a rule stating that lapped cars are obliged to get out of the way of cars on the lead lap. IIRC he was ranting about one of the Williams cars trying to unlap itself as it was faster than the cars infront; suggesting the lapped car should stay out of the way (different ball game yesterday from Mr Brundle – unsurprisingly!). Anyhow I digress, having checked the FIA Sporting Regulations there is no rule to prevent lapped cars from overtaking cars on the lead lap and costing them time in the process. The closet we get is article 20.5:
“As soon as a car is caught by another car which is about to lap it during the race the driver must allow the faster driver past at the first available opportunity. If the driver who has been caught does not allow the faster driver past, waved blue flags will be shown to indicate that he must allow the following driver to overtake.”
So all’s fine. I must say that if I were Red Bull I’d have got on the phone to Charlie about the below article in reference to it, as we’re on less than firm ground here I think;
Article 20.4
“Manoeuvres liable to hinder other drivers, such as deliberate crowding of a car beyynd the edge of the track or any other abnormal change of direction, are not permitted.”
It would be easy to suggest that Lewis overtaking Seb hindered the Red Bull driver, and as a backmarker he should have no excuse for doing so?
If I were Red Bull I’d be asking for the little loop hole ,that probably cost Vettel 2nd place yesterday, to be closed. You never know, maybe one day it’ll come and bite McLaren back – at which point Brundle will want it closed too ! lol.
Christian Horner also gave an interview and said that although frustrating, Lewis did nothing wrong at all and that Vettel’s comments about it were just said in the heat of the moment.