Vettel: I couldn't avoid Bottas

The French Grand Prix's opening lap will go down as one of the most exciting of the 2018 campaign as both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon crashed out early on. The biggest news in the lap involved Sebastian Vettel crashing into the back of Valtteri Bottas, but the German insists he could not avoid his Mercedes rival.

Vettel and Bottas would subsequently drop down the grid to 17th and 18th place respectively, but the four-time world champion quickly rallied and sped through field rapidly, eventually finishing fifth.

Bottas took longer to recover and although he eventually finished seventh, his target would certainly have been a higher position before the Grand Prix got underway and before the incident with Vettel.

The German defended his actions following the race, and insisted he simply could not have did anything to avoid Bottas.

"I had no grip and I had no room," Vettel said after the race, looking back on the incident.

"Valtteri tried to get his position back, which is fair enough, but I hard nowhere to go because the turn goes leftBut I had to unfortunately make contact with Valtteri.

I think we had good pace, obviously I tried to hammer through the field to recover and damaged the tryres also. I think that we had decent pace to go at least with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton, who went on to win the race comfortably, provided his verdict on the collision after seeing it on replays following the race. Unsurprisingly, he sided with his Mercedes team-mate, Bottas.

"Took him right out," said Hamilton. "That's crazy!"

Fans took to social media to complain about the incident, which was compounded by Vettel being awarded the driver of the day despite the incident.