Sebastian Vettel was left unhappy with a number of drivers following Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, as his championship chances took another dent despite a strong recovery driver from 20th to fourth.
The German was critical of young Canadian Lance Stroll for a strange post-race between the pair at Turn 5, which could see Vettel hit with a five-place grid penalty should his gearbox need changing, but during the race, he took issue with Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso as the three got involved on track.
Using an alternative strategy and running the Supersoft tyre for the second half of the race, the Ferrari driver would close down his former teammate in the Red Bull by around a second per lap as he looked to challenge for the final podium place.
As he closed up onto the rear of the Australian, the two would encounter Alonso, running just outside the points in his McLaren, to lap the Spaniard. Though Ricciardo would be allowed through into Turn 1, he waited until after Turn 4 to allow Vettel through costing some vital time.
“Come on Alonso, I thought you were better than that,” he said over the radio at the time, clearly surprised by the veteran’s actions and he hadn’t forgotten after the race either.
“We came two cars within a second and Fernando decided to jump in the middle,” he told reporters, “I think he said when he left Ferrari that he was a Ferrari fan but today he didn’t act like one.”
As for the double world champion he nonchalantly dismissed the moans of the man who replaced him at the Scuderia in 2015.
“Blue flags, blue flags. I don’t know, I didn’t see on television,” he said, copying the complaints often heard by Vettel. “For me, in the car it looks okay, but we heard many times ‘blue flags, blue flags’ from him so probably it’s one of those.”
Once passed, Sebastian would close in on Ricciardo and had one half-chance at overtaking him into Turn 1 only for the 28-year-old to block the path of the Prancing Horse entering the braking zone.
“I thought that maybe the last move to the inside closing the door was not necessary,” Vettel commented. “Fortunately I could avoid him, but it’s fine. We do what we have to do in these moments. Obviously, it worked for him. Next time it might not.”
In response, the ‘Honey Badger’, who claimed his 25th career podium at Sepang, said: “I closed the door a bit later towards the apex. I don’t know how it looked from the outside.
“I don’t know if he was unhappy about it or whatever but it didn’t seem over aggressive from my side, it didn’t feel like I did a real late move or anything. From there I expected him to keep coming, keep coming and then I guess maybe kill the tyres trying to chase me and then getting close to me.”
