At the Dutch Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel stopped on lap 36 to change tires when he was in 14th place. But coming out of the pit lane, he found himself just ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 which had just snatched third place from Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.
The Aston Martin driver was presented with blue flags but stayed ahead of his opponents for a few corners, which allowed Perez to close in on Hamilton, before Vettel finally pulled away just after.
The marshals finally judged that the German had not respected the blue flags and imposed a penalty of 5 seconds on his race time, a decision that the person concerned, finally 14th in the event, did not approve.
« I had already pulled away before even halfway through the lap. And obviously I can’t disappear. I have a different opinion than theirs but it doesn’t matter, » Vettel said.
The quadruple world champion was also defended by Mike Krack, his director at Aston Martin F1, who believes that his driver enjoyed a good pace thanks to his new tires.
“It’s always difficult when you come out of the pits with new tires and get caught out by drivers on used tires,” said the Luxembourger.
« He wasn’t really slower then. But if you look at it another way, maybe he stayed ahead of Lewis too long. That kind of thing happens sometimes. »
« We knew we were going to have to stop him eventually. He was aware of drivers coming in but because he had pace I think he felt he could get a little ahead. But when there’s the flags, you have to respect them. »
In any case, this incident would not have happened if Aston Martin had not made a slow stop on Vettel’s single-seater, which would thus have started several seconds ahead of Hamilton and Perez.
And Krack to admit that this stop, indirectly responsible for the penalty, had left his pilot frustrated.
« Exactly. When you only have two or three seconds of margin but the stoppage goes wrong, you will get the blue flag. And you lose even more time in the end. »
