Vettel hit with three-place penalty in Spielberg

Spielberg, July 1: Sebastian Vettel will start the Austrian Grand Prix in sixth place after he received a grid penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz in qualifying on Saturday (June 31).

Vettel's Formula One title bid suffered another setback when he has relegated three spots by the stewards following an incident in the latter stages of Q2 in Spielberg.

The Ferrari driver said he did not see Sainz as he drove on a racing line heading into Turn 1 after finishing a flying lap.

Vettel, who trails championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 14 points, was told by the stewards he should not have been driving so slowly on a racing line, holding up Spaniard Sainz on a flying lap.

"Obviously I wasn't meaning to block him or screw his lap," said the German. "I was looking in the mirror, I passed him finishing my lap and I wasn't told anything. So I'm still looking in my mirrors, I couldn't see anything, checked again after Turn 1 and nothing to see.

"The problem by then obviously was that he was side by side, so fair enough, I can only apologise. But there was no intention obviously."

Sainz, who went on to qualify in ninth position, said: "I don't want to put too much blame on Sebastian because it has happened to me before that your engineer doesn't tell you there is a car starting the lap and you just simply don't look in your mirrors. I got a penalty for that before, but it is not always the fault of the driver if you are not told.

"But it did cost me a front wing, a repair. I was angry at the moment because I thought it had cost me my Q3 - it was my second run of Q2 and we were pushing flat out. But thank God I had a good enough lap at the start of Q2 to go through."

Valtteri Bottas took pole ahead of Mercedes team-mate Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean now starting in third, fourth and fifth respectively following Vettel's punishment.

Vettel was also in trouble for a collision with Bottas at the French Grand Prix last weekend and now has three penalty points on his Super License.

Source: OPTA/OmniSport