Dramatic last lap collision with Raikkonen a ‘misunderstanding’ says Vettel

Sebastian Vettel put his dramatic collision with friend and former team mate Kimi Raikkonen on the last lap of the Austrian Grand Prix down to a “misunderstanding”…

The duo were disputing P12, having failed to show the pace to genuinely contend for points, with Vettel diving down the inside on the exit of Turn 4 as the race came to a close.

The two drifted towards each other, with the front right of Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo clipping the left rear of the Aston Martin, sending both into a spin off into the gravel. Raikkonen limped back 16th – and was later penalised by the stewards – while Vettel retired on the spot.

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“I don’t know [what happened],” said Vettel. “I think it was a misunderstanding, so I’ll have a look and speak to him.”

Raikkonen also wanted to watch the incident again. “I don’t know, I have to see it,” he said. “Obviously our wheels touched and off we went.

“An unfortunate end but it didn’t change much, because we were both out of the points, but I’ll have to see it from the outside.”

He added: “I saw him there, but I don’t know how we ended up touching. I don’t know if I moved or he moved. I’ll have to see it.”

Vettel qualified inside the top 10, but started P11 after being handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso in qualifying. He started on the soft, which forced and early pit stop and he was unable to come back through the field to rescue points for the second race in succession.

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“It felt OK but I think it wasn’t there throughout the race so we’ll need to have a look,” he said. “The race felt OK but we didn’t get any points so obviously a bit disappointed.”

Raikkonen received the black and white flag for track limits during the race and was annoyed with his team on the radio because they hadn’t told him he received the warning.

“Obviously it’s not ideal when you tell me when I’ve already got a warning,” he said. “But I don’t know. Obviously the car behaved very well and we were just too slow, a little bit too slow.

“We caught up again. It’s not ideal but in the end it didn’t really change as we were out of the points…”

After the race the stewards deemed Raikkonen to be at fault for causing a collision and handed him a 20 second time penalty, as well as two penalty points, which takes his total to six in the current 12 month period. His time penalty does not affect his final classified finishing position of 16th.