Vettel under fire over Azerbaijan ‘road rage’

BAKU. - Sebastian Vettel’s “road rage” in Baku was still stirring heated debate 24 hours after he steered his Ferrari into Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

As Vettel was seeking out Hamilton’s phone number for a private chat about his moment of madness on lap 19, Mercedes boss Niki Lauda warned he risked a punch from Hamilton. “He freaked out in himself,” said Lauda. “Somebody up the a*** it is your fault. No question. But then to drive next to him and hit him on purpose, I have never seen anything like this.

“To do that I don’t understand. Vettel is a decent guy normally. This I don’t understand. He is crazy. Lewis will hit him one day. Not with the car but with his fist.”

The chaotic race was won by Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull whose long-awaited success was overshadowed by the German’s wild driving.

The Australian said: “Seb sometimes probably doesn’t think before he acts it’s probably driven through passion and hunger.

“I respect Seb a lot for his grit, and his love for the sport, which turns into a lot of passion and sometimes aggression.

“I respect and like that about him, but in this race you’ve seen sometimes he will just go crazy.”

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner was of a similar mind and said: “Sebastian obviously felt that Lewis brake tested him.

“Then it just looked like a red mist moment to me where he’s lost it and taken a swipe at him, which was only ever going to result in a penalty.”

Vettel incurred a 10-second penalty and three points on his licence, increasing his total to nine.

He will have to stay out of trouble in Austria or face a possible one-race ban for reaching 12 penalty points inside a 12-month period.

Vettel finished fourth and Hamilton fifth after the Englishman was forced to make an extra pit-stop from a commanding leading position to repair a loose headrest.

The result allowed Vettel to extend his lead from 12 points to 14.

Vettel’s claim that he was ‘brake-tested’ by Hamilton was quashed by both the International Motoring Federation (FIA) and Mercedes. Hamilton slammed Vettel’s behaviour. “He disgraced himself today. If he wants to prove that he is a man we should do it out of the car, face-to-face.

Vettel refused to accept any blame for the incident and said he would call Hamilton to talk it over.

“I don’t have a problem with him,” insisted Vettel. “I respect him a lot for the driver he is, but now is not the right time to talk. I’ll do that just with him and clear it and move on.

“Maybe I’m not clever enough, but I’m not complicated. I’m willing to sort it out with him. I don’t think there’s much to sort out.”

Told of Vettel’s planned call, Hamilton said: “He doesn’t have my number.’’