Vettel receives time penalty after controversial overtake on Button

Sebastian Vettel has received a 20-second timed penalty after his controversial overtake on the McLaren of Jenson Button in the closing laps of the German Grand Prix, which has relegated the German star back to 5th place and Kimi Raikkonen up to 3rd place and the final podium position.

With only a handful of laps remaining in the race, Jenson Button began to fall into the clutches of the reigning World Champion, after initially battling for the lead with eventual race winner Fernando Alonso. As Vettel and Button negotiated the turn 6 hairpin, the German driver overtook the Briton whilst running wide and onto the tarmac run-off area.

Due to the nature of this overtake, in which Vettel was greatly assisted by purposefully running off the circuit, the stewards have issued the German with a severe 20-second timed penalty. This has therefore altered the final race classification, as Jenson Button moves back up to 2nd place, Kimi Raikkonen up to 3rd and the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi up to 4th. However, Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner believes Vettel was ahead of the Briton before he left the track.

"He goes to the outside. Gets clearly ahead and then Jenson runs him out wide and over the kerb. So I think it is unfair to say he got an unfair advantage from that, it was a racing incident," explained Christian Horner to Sky Sports F1 HD whilst the investigation was ongoing. “If you slow the camera down to the point that Sebastian leaves the track you will see clearly that he is ahead. Jenson is actually wheel spinning out of the corner, he has no grip. Sebastian has jinked around him. I think it would be very harsh to penalize him."

This slight alteration to the results mean that the two Red Bull drivers eventually finished the German Grand Prix 5th and 8th respectively, adding only a meagre 14 points to their Championship tally.

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