Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel says the way and place where Max Verstappen overtook him during his storming recovery at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix was “not correct”.
The German was running fifth in the closing laps of a rain-hit race at Interlagos when the Red Bull ace came charging through and muscled his way past Vettel on the inside at Juncao, with the Ferrari driver running wide as a consequence.
Vettel immediately complained over his team radio that Verstappen ”pushed him off the track” but the Interlagos stewards elected not to investigate the incident.
“I think I was racing him side-by-side, he saw me, I still had a little bit of my nose ahead,” Vettel told TV crews after the race. “He was much faster so it was about the corner where you get past. I don’t think it was correct.”
In a wild, red-flagged contest, Vettel was nonetheless satisfied to come away with fifth place after a spin and botched pit stop had pushed him down the order early on.
“Obviously it was not ideal in the first part to spin,” added the four-time world champion, whose team-mate Kimi Raikkonen caused one of the two red flags when he crashed into the wall on the main straight.
“I had some aquaplaning but I wasn’t the only one. I think it was a good recovery in the end, difficult to come back. I struggled to get past Carlos, I don’t know why it took a lot of laps but by then it was too late.
“It could have been anything today. I wasn’t the only one to get caught out by the aquaplaning but luckily I didn’t crash.”
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