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Vettel 'was going ballistic' - Arrivabene

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says Sebastian Vettel "was going ballistic" after being taken out of the Russian Grand Prix.

Vettel was hit by Daniil Kvyat twice on the first lap in Sochi, with the second hit seeing him spin out of the race and into the barrier at Turn 3. Vettel delivered a number of expletives over team radio after the incident and Arrivabene says his driver was livid in the aftermath.

"No, he was not happy at all, he was going ballistic but you understand," Arrivabene said. "The rare situation where he took a DNF one time [in Bahrain] and a second time with something that had nothing to do with him, this is the character of the guy.

"He’s a four-time world champion and he wants to continue to win so it’s understandable. Afterwards we talked and he was a bit more calm, but of course calm doesn’t mean happy."

Arrivabene also criticised Kvyat's driving in the incident, saying the Russian's excuses for causing the crash were not valid.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.