Niki Lauda and Hamilton slam FIA for Vettel penalty

Sebastian Vettel had the worst start to his French GP, as he had a slight tyre lock-up on Turn 1 that led to him ramming into Bottas, who suffered a puncture due to the entire incident.

Vettel had suffered a front-wing damage and the duo were forced to pit during the Safety car that hd been introduced due to their collision.

The stewards were quick to review the incident and deemed Vettel at fault. The World championship leader (at that point) was then slapped with a 5 second penalty.

However, after the race, when Hamilton got to see the even in the cool down room, he exclaimed that the penalty was not good enough, as Vettel deserved a little more punishment than that.

“Jeez, he took him right out,” said Hamilton in the cool-down room.

“Oh, man, that’s crazy.” he added.

When quizzed about the entire incident later, Hamilton conceded that he needed a more detailed look at it to make any concrete comments.

He did however take a dig at Vettel as he despite having ruined Bottas’ race was ‘allowed’ to finish ahead of him.

“I’ve not seen it in detail but I saw something played back there.

“For me, I’m disappointed because we had a chance to get a one-two finish. That’s the ultimate goal within the team and Valtteri had done a solid job this weekend, as he has all year.

“We all went into Turn 1 as hard as we could. When someone destroys your race and then gets a tap on the hand, pretty much… they shouldn’t be able to come back and finish ahead.” Hamilton said.

Niki Lauda was disappointed and a little infuriated with the penalty for Vettel as he felt the stewards had to give him something severe for having ruined the race for Bottas and himself.

“I think we could have done, and why Vettel only gets five seconds for this enormous mistake I don’t really understand. It is too little.

“There is more time they can give them. That is what I mean. Five seconds is nothing. He destroyed the whole race for himself and Bottas.” Lauda said.