Narain Karthikeyan won't be getting any Christmas cards from Red Bull any time soon after he held up Sebastian Vettel during the United States GP.
Vettel started the penultimate race of 2012 on pole position and led for 42 laps before he was overtaken by eventual winner Lewis Hamilton.
Although Hamilton had been pressuring the Red Bull driver for the best part of 10 laps before he completed the pass, Vettel and his team principal Christian Horner believe backmarker Karthikeyan cost him valuable time as he didn't move out of the way immediately.
"The race unfortunately hinged on one backmarker that didn't use his mirrors," Horner told Sky Sports F1.
"That was the difference. It cost Sebastian vital time and it gave Lewis a clear and easy run under the DRS.
"But there was nothing between the two of them today, they were trading times all afternoon, and it was that one backmarker that cost us."
He added: "It's difficult. We're sitting here with a 13-point lead in the Drivers' Championship and we take that lead into Brazil and it's all about what happens in that race.
"But you have to look at that season as a whole and we've had ups and downs.
"Karthikeyan has helped us on occasion and not on others. You have to look at the season in its entirety rather than picking out individual single moments because each team up and down the pit lane I'm sure can do that."
Vettel, who has a 13-point lead over Fernando Alonso in the Championship with just the Brazilian GP still to come, was also upset with the HRT driver after the race.
"I wasn't too happy to send a nice big invitation to Lewis when I had to go through Karthikeyan," the German said.
"He was right behind in the DRS zone. He took that opportunity, fair enough, down the straight and he passed me. I tried to defend but I knew he would have so much more speed. I was obviously not too happy. Lewis had one chance and he took it after that I tried to stay with him but there wasn't much between us."
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