The Sepang stewards have deemed that no further action is warranted following the post-race incident involving Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll today.

While attention was focussed on race winner Max Verstappen, the cameras cut away to fourth placed Vettel who had stopped on track with his left-rear wheel pointing at the sky from the top of his engine cover.

Subsequent replays showed the Ferrari colliding with Lance Stroll as the two completed their slow down laps at the end of the race as the Williams driver sought out rubber pick-up from the side of the track.

"Is that possible?" said a stunned Vettel. "Stroll is not looking where he is going! He completely shunted into my car."

"Vettel just ran right into the side of me," reported Stroll to his team.

However, a post-race investigation by the stewards deemed that no furrher action was required.

"On the approach to Turn 5 during the slow down lap after the end of the race, Car 18 (Stroll) was towards the middle of the track, Car 8 (Grosjean) was closing from behind on the inside and at the same time, Car 5 (Vettel) overtook Car 18 on the outside and in doing so, turned in slightly towards the apex of Turn 5," they said.

"Simultaneously Car 18 was moving slight away from the apex. This resulted in contact between the left rear tyre of Car 5 and the right front tyre of Car 18.

"The Stewards consider that no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident and will therefore take no further action. The Stewards also consider that even though the race has ended, caution still needs to be exercised by all drivers on the slow down lap."

While he might have escaped punishment for the incident, Vettel now has to wait and see if his gearbox was damaged in the incident, if so it will mean the German taking a grid penalty in Japan next week.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Sepang, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by CB120, 03/10/2017 1:07

"In a post-race interview Vettel said he was picking up rubber and he thought Stroll was doing the same thing. But if Vettel was picking up rubber then why did he move off the "rubber line" and back to the centre of the track, which the onboard camera shows, and the stewards noted? It looks like Stroll made a similar move which the stewards also noted. Therefore both were to blame but Vettel always seems to blame the other guy."

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2. Posted by DJ, 02/10/2017 20:13

"Sad truth is that if Vettel was not such an idiot, he would still be leading the championship by 19 points as he lost 25 points in Singapore and 13 points in Azerbaijan due to stupidity.
It's a good job he drives for Ferrari because if he drove for a "lesser" team, this is what would have happened.

1. Azerbaijan incident: Disqualification plus several points on his licence.
2. Singapore incident: 5 spot grid penalty for causing a collision plus more points on his licence.
3. Malaysia incident: 5 spot grid penalty for causing a collision plus more points on his licence."

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3. Posted by yakker, 02/10/2017 17:57

"Comment from the pitlane, "the Ferrari never got to parc ferme, was this because the car was illegal, and avoided being checked, afterall it was much faster than anything else""

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4. Posted by F1 Yank, 02/10/2017 17:16

"Looking over the video a few times, it appears that VET did cut down on the apex of the corner. VET was probably thinking that STR would stay off line where the pickup material was since that is what STR was doing with his car. STR then moved back online and hit VET. It is then my opinion both were somewhat at fault. I would like to also add that STR was actually merging back online and did not look in his mirror, so STR takes most of the blame, if I were to give it."

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5. Posted by Roope, 02/10/2017 16:20

"So the race stewards thought it was nobody's fault!!! This is totally ridiculous. It certainly was somebody's fault. Vettel again. Video from the car behind makes it fully clear. Lance did not move side ways at all. It was Vettel who did cut into the path of Lance while passing him causing his rear left wheel to tangle with Lance's front right wheel. Citing Mark Webber, Vettel does not realize his car does not end behind his helmet. But how can you punish a championship contender??? It might negatively impact on public interest. On another point, what happened to Kimi's car during the night? It was perfect during qualifying, but as soon as the engine was started to drive to the grid next day, his turbo was malfunctioning, exactly as Vettel's the day before. How is this possible? This is for FIA to examine."

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6. Posted by Spindoctor, 02/10/2017 12:09

"Poor old Seb. He should've gone to Specsavers...."

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No further action re Stroll/Vettel incident

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