Stewards give explanation for Vettel penalty
Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari must pounce on a wounded Mercedes in France.
The stewards have ruled that Sebastian Vettel rejoined the track in an “unsafe manner” and “forced Lewis Hamilton off the track” in the Canadian GP.
Vettel was leading the race with Hamilton close behind when he got out of shape and went across the grass at Turn 4.
He would rejoin the track and immediately the racing line, forcing Hamilton to back off after briefly being alongside his rival.
As a result of the incident, Vettel was hit with a five-second time penalty and two points on his superlicence, causing him to drop to P2 with Hamilton taking the win.
The Scuderia racer was furious, calling the stewards “blind”. He also displayed his anger by avoiding the post-race interviews, stopping his SF90 away from parc ferme and even swapping the P1 and p2 markers in the pit lane where Hamilton and Vettel’s team-mate Charles Leclerc had parked up in-line with procedures.
La sanción a Vettel. Ante la duda de la intencionalidad en cerrar a Hamilton, yo no lo hubiera sancionado.
The penalty to Vettel. If there is a little doubt about intentionality of pushing Hamilton, I would not penalize him. pic.twitter.com/f3bRFgQKda
— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) June 9, 2019
“The stewards reviewed video evidence and determined that car 5 [Vettel], left the track at Turn 3, rejoined the track at Turn 4 in an unsafe manner and forced car 44 [Hamilton] off the track,” claimed their official statement.
“Car 44 had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.”
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