Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has pleaded guilty to baulking reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton in the second phase of Saturday’s qualifying session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City, however no further action was taken after race officials deemed the incident didn’t even warrant an investigation.
Hamilton, who was on a flying lap in qualy 2, came up behind a slow moving Sebastian Vettel who was busy warming his tyres ahead of his own flying lap.
"I did, but I had no idea he was coming. I was told too late,” Vettel told Motorsport.com about getting in Hamilton’s way. “It's my mistake."
Vettel was heard on the radio telling his team that they need to make him aware of drivers coming up behind him so that he can get out of their way in time and not cause an issue that could have seen him given a grid drop for tomorrow’s race.
Overall Seb was disappointed with the entire outcome of the afternoon when, after showing such promising pace earlier int eh weekend, all he could muster was seventh on the grid, behind his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen.
“I am very disappointed, because the car is quick. Our Q2 had been a walk in the park with the Soft tires,” he explained. “I had a much better feeling, but then with the Supersofts we were nowhere. Yesterday we were gaining quite a lot on the Supersoft compound and today we didn't gain anything.”
“We tried a couple of things, but in qualifying you can't turn the world upside down: so now we need to have a look and see why. Everybody improved on the Supersofts, more or less half a second - everybody except us. The car is quick, there is nothing wrong with it, and we start where the car doesn't belong. It doesn't make our race easier to start further back, but I think we still have a chance. ”
