Vettel sticks up for Raikkonen

Vettel sticks up for Raikkonen as Mercedes accusations fly

Matthew Scott

Sunday 8 July 2018 17:32

Sebastian Vettel snapped back at Mercedes' suggestions that Kimi Raikkonen deliberately crashed into Lewis Hamilton in order to facilitate his British Grand Prix win. Pole-sitter Hamilton had to fight from the back of the field to finish second after colliding with Raikkonen at turn three.

A poor start left the reigning champion behind both Vettel and team-mate Valtteri Bottas off the line, but his hopes of winning his home race for a record-breaking sixth time went up in smoke after Raikkonen sent him into a spin.

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Speaking on the podium, Hamilton sniped at Ferrari's "tactics" - a theme he elaborated on in the press conference.

"I'm very grateful the car was in one piece after the turn one incident. To get back to second was huge for us," he said.

"All l would say is that it's two races in which a Ferrari has taken out a Mercedes. Valtteri and I have both lost out in those situations [Vettel spun Bottas with a first-lap crash in France].

"I don't have any problems with Kimi."

However, Vettel dismissed any notion that his team-mate was put on notice to ruin his title rival's race.

"It's silly to think that anything happened was deliberate," he said.

"I don't think there was an intention and l think it's unnecessary to even go there [suggest it was deliberate]."

Raikkonen held his hands up immediately after the race, accepting fault for the incident.