‘Crazy’ Vettel in line of fire over Baku road rage

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. “When you hit 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.”