Champion Vettel forced to
apologise to angry Webber

Mark Webber held sway over team-mate Vettel following the fourth and final pit stop and, at that point, the call went out to the duo to hold station to the chequered flag.

Vettel, however, had other ideas and, instead, went wheel to wheel with Webber for more than a lap, even ignoring a call from frustrated team principal Christian Horner, who said: “This is silly Seb. Come on.”

Despite that warning, 25-year-old Vettel bulldozed his way past Webber to triumph for the 27th time in his F1 career.

It was reminiscent of German compatriot Michael Schumacher at his most callous, the seven-times world champion being renowned for his underhand tactics, along with his brilliant driving.

The friction that followed between Webber and Vettel in the green room, where the drivers cool down post race before taking to the podium, and in the interview on the podium itself, was palpable.

Vettel initially described it as “a tight battle”, admitting he was perhaps “too keen too soon” with his move on Webber given the tyre strategies of the duo, but did not appear to regret anything he had done.

Webber, however, pulled no punches, saying: “Seb made his own decision and will have protection, and that’s the way it goes.”

By the time the pair reached the main press conference room several minutes later, Vettel decided to show remorse for his actions.

“As you can see, I’m not entirely happy. I think I made a big mistake,” said Vettel.

“I think we should have stayed in the positions we were. I didn’t ignore it on purpose, but I messed up in that situation and obviously took the lead.

“I can see now he (Webber) is upset, but yeah, I at least want to be honest and stick to the truth and apologise.

“I know it doesn’t really help his feelings right now, but I should have behaved better.

“As I’ve said, I didn’t do it deliberately. I didn’t realise I had made a mistake. It was only when I came back and saw the team’s reaction I realised.

“I had a very short word with Mark, and then it hit me quite hard and I realised that I f***** up.”

There has never been any love lost between the pair given previous on-track incidents, initially in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix when Vettel crashed out after trying to pass Webber for the lead.

Then, in the 2011 British Grand Prix, Webber was told to hold position by Horner towards the end of the race when he had the pace to pass Vettel.

Despite the apology from Vettel, there was a look of fury on Webber’s face throughout the entire press conference that added to the tension.

Asked whether the situation had made him consider his future with the team, and in F1 on the whole, Webber replied: “My mind in the last 15 laps was thinking many things, yes. Many, many things.”

As to how Webber will respond to a team order if he is chasing Vettel for a win, he said: “That question is not going to be answered right now.

“Let’s just say there were a lot of things going through my mind in the last 15 laps of the grand prix, lots of different reasons, not just from (yesterday) but also from the past.

“We’ll see what happens. We’ve got three weeks before the next race. Right now it’s very early days, it’s very raw, but we need to work out how the team best goes forwards from here.

“That’s obviously going to be discussed this week. I will be in Australia on my surfboard, the phone won’t be engaged, so let’s see what happens.”

Horner sat down with both men post-race in an attempt to try to iron out the differences, but clearly still has work to do.

“We’ve conducted a debrief and I’ve spoken to both drivers, and Seb has apologised to both Mark and the team,” said Horner.

“It wasn’t right what he did, he accepts that, and he has said if he could wind the clock back he wouldn’t do it again.”

Explaining why Vettel was not ordered to give the place back, Horner added: “Do you honestly think if we’d told him to slow down and give the place back he would have done so?

“There was no point in even trying because he had made it quite clear what his intention was by making the move.

“He knew what the communication was, but he chose to ignore it. He put his interests beyond what the team’s position was.”