Sebastian Vettel drew the ire of Romain Grosjean and Lando Norris after the Haas driver impeded the Briton during Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.
The Frenchman received a three-place grid drop for holding up the McLaren youngster at the final corner in Q1, meaning his P8 result becomes a P11 start on Sunday.
However, it was the actions of Vettel that have been blamed for instigating the situation.
“It’s Vettel that made a mess,” Grosjean said. “He didn’t respect the unwritten rule that you don’t overtake before the last corner.
“He passed the queue, came in front of me so that gave me another three or four seconds to wait.
“Obviously we had not [anticipated] the fact that Vettel would do that, therefore, we thought we were clear of Norris and that’s probably why they didn’t tell me that Norris was on a flying lap.”
The stewards’ report acknowledged that Grosjean’s actions were likely accidental without the radio call but pointed out a driver should still be aware of those coming up behind.
And though initially frustrated with the Haas driver, Norris later saw Romain’s point of view.
“Vettel screwed him over, which isn’t a very nice thing to do in terms of us being racers,” he said.
“We try to respect each other in terms of you’ve got a car ahead you don’t overtake them into the final corner like [Kevin] Magnussen and Fernando [Alonso] in Monza last year as you ruin both of your qualifying laps.
“I think he [Grosjean] did what he could when he knew but he did impede me.”
“If I didn’t get to do a second qualifying lap for whatever reason that would have been the reason I wouldn’t have been in Q2.”
Vettel was also investigated for driving too slowly on an in-lap and thus exceeding the maximum time allocated for drivers to return to the pits.
However, the lap in question saw the Ferrari driver heavily flat-spot both front tyres into Turn 1, with the stewards agreeing that the resulting vibrations were too severe to abide by the regulation.
