Vettel jokingly plays peacemaker as Ocon and Perez face media

Monza, August 31: Sebastian Vettel jokingly acted as a peacemaker on Thursday as Force India's Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez faced the media together in the wake of their fall out at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ocon and Perez collided at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, with the former going on to suggest his team-mate had put their lives at risk.

Both men duly stated their desire to move on from the incident, and repeated those sentiments in the drivers' news conference ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Yet championship leader Vettel had a joke at the duo's expense after being sat between Ocon and Perez at Monza, the Ferrari driver stretching his arms out to mockingly keep them apart.

Sebastian is acting as peacekeeper today #ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/jXMT8YpugE

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 31, 2017

Force India's chief operating officer, Otmar Szafnauer, said Ocon and Perez would no longer be trusted to race without team orders, with the pair having also made contact with each other in Azerbaijan and Hungary this year.

"We need to get the trust of the boss back and maybe after some races they will let us race again," said Ocon on Thursday.

"We both crossed the line. We cannot do that in the future for the purpose of the team and for us.

"We had a talk this morning, just us two, and it's time we forget all that."

Perez added: "Everyone has an opinion on what happened but we must move forward. We cannot afford to lose any more points.

"I want to do the best in the car I'm in. Working with Esteban can still be a successful partnership."

Source: OPTA