ISTANBUL // Sebastian Vettel stepped from the crumpled remains of his Red Bull-Renault and gave a time-honoured gesture. The other bloke, apparently, was crazy. In this instance, that other bloke was teammate Mark Webber. There is rarely anything to choose between them during the course of a race weekend, but they had never been quite as close as they got during yesterday's Turkish Grand Prix.
Two laps before their collision, Webber had been instructed to turn down his engine revs, to save fuel, to ensure he made it to the end of the race Vettel, who had been running slightly more slowly during the early part of the race, had more in his tank - and a four-lap window in which to capitalise on his momentary performance advantage. "If you look at the pictures," said Vettel, "I think it's clear that I had the inside line. I was focusing on the braking point, he touched my right wheel and I went off." Helmut Marko, Red Bull's driver development manager and a former racer, sided firmly with Vettel. He said: "Sebastian was clearly quicker at that stage of the race and Mark should have given him more room."
Christian Horner, the team principal, took a more balanced view: he criticised both parties. "Mark didn't leave Sebastian enough space," he said. "But at the same time Sebastian pulled across too soon - and that's when they touched. "They both have a duty to drive for the team and what happened today cost us a race win and 28 championship points." It transformed a safe one-two into a solitary third place.
Webber was tight-lipped in the race's immediate aftermath - describing the accident as "just one of those unfortunate things that sometimes happens" - but later gave a more expansive account. "Obviously Seb was a bit quicker at that point," he said. "But I wasn't about to make things easy. We're fighting for race wins - and the world championship. When he came down the inside, I just tried to keep him on the dirty side of the track, so that he'd struggle to brake for Turn 12. That way, I was hoping to get back ahead when we exited the corner. He cut across and hit me before we got there, though."
Anthony Davidson, a former grand prix driver, nowadays part of the Peugeot Le Mans team and an analyst for BBC radio in the UK, believes Webber has a point. "It was 100 per cent Vettel's fault," he said. Vettel has been part of the Red Bull family since his formative racing years - and is regarded by many as the team's favoured son. Webber, though, is no tame No 2 and unlikely ever to accept such a role.
In each of the previous two races, at Barcelona and Monaco, he has beaten Vettel fair and square. Yesterday the German spotted an opportunity to reclaim the initiative - and misjudged it. sports@thenational.ae