As in Monza, in the eyes on many, Sebastian Vettel did not need to make the move today which has almost certainly ended his title hopes.

In Italy he made an unnecessary first lap assault on Lewis Hamilton which saw the German spin out of contention, while today, even knowing that Max Verstappen had a 5s penalty, a similar lunge resulted in another spin for Sebastian Vettel, dropping him to last place in the process.

Speaking after the race, he insisted he had no regrets in terms of making the move, but blamed the Dutch driver for the outcome.

"I was obviously pushing to get past," he told Sky Sports F1, "but I wasn't desperate to get past. I knew he had a penalty, but I also felt that we were faster. The gap was there but as soon as he saw me obviously he defended. But I had the inside.

"As soon as he realises somebody is close or next to him, he tries to, in my opinion, push when you shouldn't push anymore," added the German.

Look at Kimi," he continued, referring to the first lap clash with his Ferrari teammate which earned Verstappen the penalty, "he's off the track and he comes back and if Kimi just drives on they'd collide. It's not always right that the other guy has to move. We're all racing, the race is long.

"For me, the gap was there," he insisted, referring to his own clash with the Red Bull driver at Spoon, "otherwise I wouldn't do it. I think I got through the whole field without any trouble. Sometimes closer, sometimes with more margin. It's normal that it sometimes gets close but you need to always give the space and in that case I couldn't go anywhere and then we touched.

"This is part of racing, don't get me wrong," he added. "I don't regret the move, obviously with that outcome you would do it differently because with hindsight it's always easy. But the gap was there, his battery was clipping, I was boosting, I saved my battery, I had more speed, I would have made the corner, I was side by side and then he didn't give enough room and we touched."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by F1 Yank, 22/10/2018 23:23

""Dumb dumb, I will not admit when I've made a mistake!" Those who admit their faults or mistakes grow wiser and more experienced then become more composed under pressure. Those who don't have to go through this process several times!"

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2. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 08/10/2018 9:35

"Was the move down to the fact he knew he did not have the straight line speed to pass him now the Ferrari has lost its engine performance advantage?"

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3. Posted by zoom, 07/10/2018 20:46

"Vettel needs the services of a sports psychologist--IMHO. He's been making too many unforced errors--he's a better driver than that. "

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4. Posted by Pavlo, 07/10/2018 20:27

"Stewards should have just watched the race. Vettel did several overtakes in that corner and everyone else left a space. We saw multiple “beautiful” overtaking maneuvered today and only Max manages to crash with everyone who tries to attack him."

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5. Posted by *TestaRossa*, 07/10/2018 16:01

"Lewis deserves the championship , he is miles ahead of Vet as a driver and keeps it always cool , this was again a blunder of Vet , the guy thinks all drivers move over for a Ferrari like they did for Schumacher so many times.
The stewards should have punished Vet for this Kamikaza move . "

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6. Posted by Mad Matt, 07/10/2018 15:11

"I'm happy to accept that Sebastian can be a bit of a princess Stampy-foot but in this case he was 90% alongside and we're always told that you have to leave room for any car which is 50% alongside. I note that he made similar moves on other cars who didn't drive into him.

So, in my opinion, as someone who is a fan of neither Max or Sebastian, this was clearly Max's fault. Again we need to see consistent implementation of rules from the FIA. "

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7. Posted by klmn, 07/10/2018 12:59

"Cry baby , it is never his fault, so many times he f***ed up. "

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Vettel: I don't regret the move

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