SHANGHAI // Sebastian Vettel, the world champion, denied sparking another Red Bull Racing team orders row after he appeared to ignore an instruction during the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Vettel grumpily replied, “Tough luck” when told to yield to his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was closing fast in fifth, after the first round of pitstops.
But despite his initial reaction, Vettel insisted he did give way to Ricciardo when he realised the Australian had more pace.
“I did move over,” Vettel told reporters. “Initially I didn’t understand (the request) because we were on the same tyres.
“At that stage Daniel was on a different strategy so, yeah, I moved over. I could see more and more towards the end of the race that I just didn’t have the pace... In the end there was no point in holding him back.”
Ricciardo has been consistently quicker than Vettel this season in an unexpected challenge for the German, who has won the last four world titles but currently lies fifth in the standings.
Vettel’s initial response over the radio came when he was informed that Ricciardo, who was on the same tyres, was behind only because he had pitted earlier.
Vettel has previously ignored orders, most famously when he overtook then teammate Mark Webber to win the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix despite being told to hold second position.
However, two weeks ago in Bahrain, he moved over without complaint for Ricciardo, who was on quicker, softer tyres.
Vettel’s version of events on Sunday was backed up by team boss Christian Horner.
“Look, at that stage Seb was on the same tyres and he wants to race,” Horner said. “But he was going through the tyres quicker so he’s obviously moved out of the way and let his teammate through.
“From a team point of view we always want to get the best result for the team that we can. And Seb’s done the right thing today.”
Horner added that he was much more concerned about finding the reasons behind Vettel’s lack of pace.
“More important for us is to try to understand what Seb is struggling with at the moment,” he said.
Last two laps in Shanghai do not count because of early chequered flag
A stewarding blunder forced the Chinese Grand Prix to be shortened by two laps on Sunday after a race marshal mistakenly showed the chequered flag early to race winner Lewis Hamilton.
Under FIA rules, if the flag is shown early the race is deemed to have finished when the leading car last crossed the line, in this case after Lap 54.
The mishap was not announced until after the race, meaning the last two laps of the 56 were effectively null and void and the finishing times and race distance had to be hastily revised.
“That was very strange,” said Hamilton, the Mercedes-GP driver. “I was thinking ‘am I seeing things?’ I looked up as I was coming across the line, expecting to do another lap, and I saw a chequered flag. And I saw there was no one [from the team] on the wall so I kept going.
“I did lose like a second or so. I asked the team was there a flag and they said ‘no’ and I kept going.”
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