Singapore: Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel may well come to rue the errant turn of the steering wheel that triggered the first-corner collision taking the German out of the Singapore Grand Prix and wrecking his hopes of regaining the overall championship lead.
Starting from pole with title-rival Hamilton only fifth, the Ferrari driver was ideally placed to re-take the overall lead he had conceded to the Briton at the last race at Italy’s Monza. Instead, he dropped to 28 points behind Mercedes’ triple champion with six of the 20 races still to go.
Vettel made a clean, if slow, getaway off the rain-drenched grid. He veered left to cover off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who had started alongside on the front row. The Dutchman took evasive action but made contact with Kimi Raikkonen’s fast-starting Ferrari, sending it spearing into the side of the other Ferrari.
Vettel continued with a damaged car but then spun into the wall after turn three in an impact that removed the front wing and nose. Ferrari blamed Verstappen on their Twitter feed, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner rushed to his driver’s defence. “He (Verstappen) unfortunately ended up retiring as the result of somebody else’s accident,” Horner said.
The crash ended a run of 18 consecutive points finishes for four-time champion Vettel, whose last retirement came in Malaysia in October 2016, when Hamilton also failed to finish after leading.
Vettel may well come to see Singapore as the race that swung the balance. “There is nothing we can do now and for sure it is bitter,” said the 30-year-old driver. “But we have other races ahead of us and I am sure there will be more opportunities for us.”
reuters
