Sebastian Vettel criticizes Bruno Senna after first lap incident

Newly-crowned World Champion Sebastian Vettel has criticized Bruno Senna, after the pair came together on the opening lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Senna tried to overtake Vettel into Turn 4, but the German closed the door and the inevitable ensued. This saw Senna retire and Vettel plummet to the back of the order.

Despite picking up severe damage to the left-hand side of his car, Sebastian Vettel was undeterred by his collision with Senna and immediately began clawing his way back through the order as the rain began to intensify at the circuit. Although Sebastian Vettel was eventually able to clinch his third successive Drivers’ Championship, the German criticized the Brazilian driver after the race.

“The start was quite good. I was quite happy.” Explained Sebastian Vettel, “Then I think I was bit too early on KERS and didn’t get KERS until Turn One but nevertheless, I was side by side with Mark [Webber] and he squeezed me to the inside, so your angle for Turn One becomes worse and worse. Then down to Turn Four, I was benefitting from the slipstream in front, relatively safe to Paul [di Resta] who was behind, as far as I remember, and then I got the hit in Turn Four for no reason. I don’t know what happened. I think someone probably... I think it was Bruno, I was told it was Bruno... he was probably fighting someone into Turn Four.

“It was drizzling since the start of the formation lap and it was quite slippery in Turn Four, we knew that. Maybe he forgot. The same thing I mentioned about the fact that in Turn One I had to back out of the situation because your angle just becomes narrower. If he was on the inside, which I suppose - I haven’t seen the footage - BOOM and I was the car that he used to stop himself. They didn’t help us.”

Sebastian Vettel was extremely lucky to continue circulating out on track, after Bruno Senna’s Williams tore a hole in the side of the German’s Red Bull. Despite the mangled bodywork on the side of the car, Vettel continued racing and eventually crossed the line to finish 6th, which enabled him to clinch his third successive Drivers’ Championship by just three points. However, the car was considerably slower due to the damage sustained during the first lap melee.

“In the dry conditions we were not quick enough.” Continued Sebastian Vettel, “I was stuck behind Kamui [Kobayashi] but we were nowhere on the straights, and also our tyres were suffering and we were not quick enough to fight, to go through the field because the car was damaged. I looked at the floor and it didn’t look nice. I’m quite happy because I could continue. Many times you have an accident like that in that corner and that it’s, that’s the end of the race so I was very happy for that.”

Bruno Senna’s race was ruined after his collision with Sebastian Vettel, after the Brazilian driver then collected the Sauber of Sergio Perez, who was also forced into retirement. With Senna striving to retain his seat at Williams for 2013, this was not the way he or the team would have liked to end the season. Despite Vettel’s criticism to Senna, opinions throughout the paddock are mixed as to who was in the wrong. Either way, it was a racing incident which could well have changed the course of the Drivers’ Championship.

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