Vettel victim of 'rubbish rule'

Sebastian Vettel fell foul of a "rubbish rule" that has left him counting the cost of a three-place grid drop for the United Sates, according to Red bull team principal Christian Horner. Ferrari driver Vettel was punished for failing to slow sufficiently under red flags in FP1 – nailing another nail into the coffin his title hopes are increasingly confined to.

Friday's first session was halted when Vettel's 2019 Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc threw gravel onto the track after running wide between turns eight and nine at the Circuit of the Americas.

Vettel revealed he had been told that it took him 27.7 seconds to reach the speed required under rules new for 2018 that have also caught out Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon.

The German disagreed with his sanction, saying it was founded in a lack of "common sense" and he had an apparent ally in the shape of his old Red bull boss.

"It is a rubbish rule, "Horner told Sky Sports. "But [the stewards] have got to have consistency because otherwise it makes a little bit of a farce of all the regulations, if you have a penalty for one race but not at another.

"But it is not a good regulation.

"If a driver commits a crime like that, speeding under a red flag, the biggest thing that will hurt the driver is fining him.

"Give him a penalty, a rap on the knuckles, a fine or something and give the money to charity. To give him a three-place penalty for – how much over the limit was he, not very much – similar to Daniel.

"It effects the race, effects qualifying and it is not a good penalty."

Lewis Hamilton will be crowned champion in Austin, Texas on Sunday if he scores eight points more than Vettel, whose attempts to prolong the title race will now start from no better than fourth on the grid.

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