Vettel: 'I let Ferrari down in Baku!'

© XPB 

Sebastian Vettel feels he let down Ferrari when he failed to keep his frustrations in check and purposefully ran in to Lewis Hamilton.

In the Azerbaijan GP in June, Vettel was closely following the Mercedes driver during a Safety Car period when he believed his rival had brake-tested him.

The German moved up alongside Hamilton and barged into the side of his car, a move which earned him a 10-second stop-and-go penalty and an investigation from the FIA.

He ultimately escaped any further sanctions but in hindsight believes the episode was worse than the team's recent double disaster in Singapore, when both Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen paid a heavy price for the former's defensive move at the start of the race.

"I think Baku was worse," Vettel said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.

"I felt I let the team down, because something that I did obviously cost a race win potentially.

"So I think in Singapore, to be honest, the way I look at it, it’s racing and it happens.

"Obviously it is extremely unfortunate, but I don’t know how many start crashes there have been in the past and there will be in the future.

"If you happen to be inside them, it always sucks. There is no better way to describe. Did it come in a good time? No. Is there any ever a good time for this to happen? Probably not.

"So it doesn’t matter. It happened. We cannot control it. We need to focus on what we have in our hands and try to focus on things we can control."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter