A qualifying incident between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso could have ended “badly” according to the former Mercedes boss Norbert Haug. The near miss put both drivers in a less than ideal position before the Austrian Grand Prix last time.
Alonso was on his final hot lap of the second quarter before meeting Vettel, who was significantly slower due to a queue in front of cars.
Due to the technical handicap of the Spaniard, Vettel was given a starting penalty, which started in 11th place instead of eighth place on race day.
Alonso meanwhile had to be content with an extremely disappointing 14th place on the grid, although he set the third fastest time in the first quarter.
Haug recognized the possible seriousness of the situation and told SPORT1: “The most dangerous of all are situations like this.
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He told Sky Sports: “It’s very confusing. It has to be common sense, it has to be harsh punishments for not being right about what happened today.
“Very frustrating to lose a lot of points tomorrow. Now we have a race that we can forget from 14th place. It’s over.”
Although the Spaniard was clearly pessimistic about his race prospects after qualifying, he was able to finish in tenth place in the points.
The 39-year-old did so at George Russell’s expense, which led to an acknowledgment that it made him “a little sad” to deny the youngster his first Williams points.
Vettel and Alonso were both directly involved in the incident, but neither showed any hostility towards the other in the ensuing period.
The German said: “I saw him very late, so I couldn’t have done a lot and I think it’s the fault of the drivers in front who just keep jumping in line.
“I don’t think that’s right and we didn’t agree on it either.”
Apparently, both drivers instead pointed their fingers at the supposed gentleman’s agreement, which states that the drivers should follow each other in a queue for their respective corners in order to push for a hot lap.
Instead, the drivers had overtaken Vettel to secure a position on the track that was widely believed to be the cause of the incident.
Fortunately, neither was injured, although Haug is right when he says it could have been much, much more serious.
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