'Whole side' of car was missing after Hamilton crash - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has claimed that a "whole side" of his car was missing following the opening lap crash with Lewis Hamilton during the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, but did recognise that in his opinion he let the Ferrari fans down on their home turf.

Vettel, along with Kimi Raikkonen, took the front row of the grid in Monza after impressing in qualifying, but all of the work was undone for the German within the opening lap when he clashed with Hamilton to suffer significant damage.

The Ferrari driver spun around and found himself towards the back of the grid, and even though he made it back to fourth, he admits he disappointing the Scuderia fans.

“Obviously it’s a disappointment for the weekend, for the people,” Vettel said of the Ferrari supporters.

“I feel like I’ve let them down because I think they deserved a different result.

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“But after I had that [collision], I did everything I could, with the damage I had on the car – the whole side was missing – I think it was reasonable. But not great, obviously.”

Hamilton went on to win the Italian GP and extended his lead over Vettel to 30 points, but the latter is not throwing in the towel quite yet.

“It’s a bit of a gap, but it’s nothing that we didn’t do in the past,” Vettel continued.

“I’ve been in these situations, I know what to do and I’m not going to bother too much about what happened.

“For sure it’s a disappointment right now, but very quickly I am turning the page and focusing on Singapore – I like the place and I am happy to go there.”