Vettel gets three-place grid penalty for hitting Rosberg

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Sebastian Vettel has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Japanese Grand Prix as punishment for hitting Nico Rosberg at the start in Malaysia.

With Vettel starting from fifth place in today's Malaysian Grand Prix, the four-time world champion was attempting to outbrake Max Verstappen at the first corner when he hit Rosberg's right rear wheel, spinning the Mercedes. Vettel's left front suspension was broken in the incident, forcing him to retire from the race.

Rosberg was demoted from second place to last as a result of the spin, and the stewards decided after a long investigation that Vettel deserved further punishment, handing out a three-place grid penalty.

"Having thoroughly reviewed the video and having spoken to the driver concerned, the Stewards determined that although the cars involved in the incident were all moving at relatively similar speeds, the driver of Car 5 made a small error entering to the inside of turn 1 that led to the contact with Car 6," the stewards decision read.

"As a consequence, Car 6 was caused to spin from second place and lose multiple positions, which the Stewards determined was predominantly the fault of the driver of Car 5 and therefore ordered the penalty above for causing a collision."

Vettel was also handed two penalty points for the incident, which leaves him with a total of four over the last 12 months.

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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.