Sebastian Vettel

Vettel deserved penalty for blocking Hamilton - Rosberg

He could have 'easily' given Lewis space.

Matthew Scott

Monday 10 June 2019 15:23 Updated: 18:30

Nico Rosberg believes Sebastian Vettel was deserving of his penalty for re-joining the track unsafely in front of Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix. Vettel lost the victory to Hamilton as a result of a five-second time penalty that the Ferrari man fumed at.

Vettel said the stewards must have been "blind" to have deemed the incident worthy of punishment, as Hamilton had to brake to avoid contact as the German fought to regain control of his car.

Rosberg pointed to Vettel making an error under pressure from Hamilton once again, and said the Ferrair man could have done more to avoid squirming right in front of his rival.

"First of all, it's the same as usual," Rosberg said on his YouTube channel.

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""When Lewis and Vettel are together, Lewis puts the pressure on and we saw the typical thing, when the pressure is on and it's a battle between Lewis and Vettel, Vettel just makes those mistakes.

"The pressure is on lap after lap and then he goes off the track. He goes off the track and rejoins screaming 'I had dirt on my tyres, I was out of control, where do you want me to go, I couldn't see Lewis'.

"But Lewis is there, and the rules say that when you go off the track, you need to rejoin safely. Vettel went all the way across and I think he easily could have left more space. Especially in the latter phase, when Lewis started braking, he could've easily left more space.

"But he didn't, and Lewis saw it as a dangerous situation. I looked at the replay many many times - Lewis would've been in the wall had he stayed there. Vettel moved over more and more, and it was so tight, that Lewis would've touch either him or the wall.

"It's very clear that unfortunately, it was an unsafe return to the track. You have to return safely, so a penalty is deserved in that case."