Vettel escapes yellow flag infringement; Renault unhappy with Hamilton; Alonso plays down Red Bull pace
Sebastian Vettel has escaped penalty after committing an offence under a yellow flag during the Malaysian Grand Prix.
With two laps remaining, the Red Bull driver passed the Lotus of Jarno Trulli at turn four while the corner was under caution following the retirement of the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Under the sport’s regulations a driver must not overtake another car under a yellow flag. However, after the race stewards viewed video footage and used telemetry to analyse the incident, Vettel was not penalised as the German had no other choice but to pass the Lotus as it was slowing with an ‘ominous problem.’
Meanwhile, Renault team prinicpal Eric Boullier has criticised the FIA’s decision not to penalise Lewis Hamilton for his weaving during today’s race.
Hamilton was given a warning from stewards after weaving down the start/finish straight to fend of Vitaly Petrov’s advances.
“We just raised our point of view,” Boullier told Autosport. “Very frankly, it is very clear in the regulations that you can have one change of direction, so when you do three in a row something is wrong.
“He got a warning for dangerous driving, but I am not sure it is enough. It is definitely clearly written in the regulations that you can not do any more than one direction change, and it is something you should not be doing.”
Despite his complaints, the Frenchman confirmed that the Enstone-based team would not pursue any action regarding the incident.
In other news, Fernando Alonso has played down the pace of Red Bull, after the Milton Keynes-based squad secured a dominant one-two in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Alonso, who suffered gearbox issues during the race and was eventually forced to retire with an engine problem told reporters: “They have three pole positions, but the three wins I’m not sure, because we were very quick in Bahrain and we were maybe quicker than them in Australia.”
“Here it was a strange race, too easy for them because we made a mistake in qualifying. We are not too worried at the moment.
“It’s a very long championship and we are capable of improving the car a lot. We know in which areas we need to improve the car, so I’m more or less confident that we can have the best car in the next few races.”
Up until his retirement, Alonso said that he believed that his drive had been the best of his career to date.
More post-race news will follow if it breaks.
