Italian GP: Vettel Blames Hamilton For Lap 1 Collision, Rosberg Disagrees

Sebastian Vettel entered the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday as the favorite to win, but yet another first lap incident saw him finish fourth after ending up at the back of the field after the opening lap.

The Ferrari driver collided with F1 Drivers’ championship rival Lewis Hamilton at Turn 4 after the Mercedes driver took advantage of Vettel’s compromised line following his failed attempt at passing his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who was in the lead having started from pole.

Hamilton was on the outside line and had the edge on Vettel, but the German driver did not concede enough, which saw him cannon into the Mercedes resulting in the Ferrari spinning and dislodging its front wing. The red car needed to pit and came out right at the back.

Vettel fought his way back to fourth place with a damaged car — and then went on to blame Hamilton for the collision. He suggested that the Mercedes driver did not leave him enough space on the inside, which meant he had no other option but to make contact which resulted in the Ferrari facing the wrong side.

“I tried to pass Kimi (Raikkonen) down the inside [into Turn 2], but then he opened the brakes, which is fair enough,” Vettel said after the race, according to F1.com. “Then I couldn’t really go any deeper without taking some silly risk, so I avoided that and tried to stay behind and attack him in the next corner.”

“Obviously I guess Lewis saw his chance [at Turn 4], but he didn’t leave me any room so I got spun around and couldn’t avoid what happened. It could have been the other way, which would have been nicer for us, but wasn’t and I was facing the wrong way,” he further explained.

Vettel, however, refused to give up and made his way through the field and finished fifth on track at the end of the race. However, a five-second penalty for Max Verstappen for causing a collision during his battle with Valtteri Bottas meant that the German moved a place higher in the final classification.

The Ferrari driver admitted he did have the car to fight for the win, but believes fourth was a good result after agreeing that it could have been much worse after the opening lap shunt with the Mercedes.

“We did well to come back given the damage that we had,” Vettel said after he was promoted to fourth after the race. “Obviously fourth is a good result with the penalty for Max. I don’t know why he got a penalty but it helped us in the end. It could have been a lot worse given how things were looking when everyone was coming towards me after four corners...”

Hamilton’s former teammate Nico Rosberg, who was on TV commentary duty during the race did not agree with his compatriot and insisted that the opening lap collision between the two title rivals was Vettel’s fault.

It was not the Ferrari driver’s first on track mistake after he collided with Bottas on the opening lap at the French Grand Prix and he also crashed while leading the German Grand Prix with a costly breaking error.

Vettel, who possibly has the fastest car on the grid, is now 30 points behind Hamilton, and it is a well-known fact that he could have been ahead if the mistakes had been avoided.

"I think it was 100% Sebastian's fault. Sebastian has gone in too deep, collided with Lewis and spun him around, it was really not good," Rosberg said.

"I can't believe that over and over he keeps doing these mistakes," he added. "That's not how you are going to be able to beat Lewis Hamilton."