Vettel accepts blame for Verstappen collision

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel has accepted responsibility for causing a collision with Max Verstappen during the British Grand Prix.

The pair collided under braking for the Vale chicane moments after Verstappen had passed Vettel for third place at Stowe, with the German misjudging his braking point and slamming into the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Lewis Larkam

14 Jul 2019

Vettel accepts blame for Verstappen collision

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel has accepted responsibility for causing a collision with Max Verstappen during the British Grand Prix.

Verstappen was subsequently launched airborne over the sausage kerb at the corner as both drivers ended up in the gravel trap. Vettel was hit with two penalty points on his license and a 10-second time penalty which dropped him to 16th in the classification, while Verstappen was remarkably able to salvage fifth.

“Well it was my mistake,” Vettel admitted after the race.

“He passed me into Stowe and he ran a bit wide which gave me the chance to come back.

“Then I thought, it looked for a second that he was going to the right and there would be a gap on the left which I was hoping to go in for.

“But it didn't open and by that time it was already too late and I was too close and I crashed.”

Vettel was seen going over to shake hands with Verstappen in parc ferme immediately after the race.

Parc Ferme...

Seb gets out of his car and immediately apologises to Max #BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/65QQX8mri3
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2019

Speaking about the incident, Verstappen added: “I guess he misjudged his braking in there, so he ran into the back [of me] but I already spoke to him and he already apologised to me immediately out of the car. That said, it’s disappointing but you can’t change it now.

“You know then that the race is lost for a podium. You try then to recover it which was anyway a bit of a surprise after the hit, smashing over that sausage kerb.

“The power steering more or less failed so it was quite a hard work out for me. The seat popped out so it was moving around a lot and the floor was quite badly damaged.

“The diffuser was broken on the side, the floor was broken. Underneath I could see parts falling off so it was not great. The car was not what it should have been but of course still happy to be fifth.”

Verstappen said he can take encouragement from Red Bull’s pace and feels he would have been on for a clear podium without the Vettel incident.

“We were clear faster than Ferrari in the race,” he said.

“Mercedes, I never really had clear laps, and I think Lewis was really quick, but in general I think we could have definitely finished second or third today.”