Ferrari Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel’s anger toward Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat may have been comically overblown at the Chinese Grand Prix, but this time, he’s rightfully mad. Kvyat hit him not once, but twice, immediately knocking Vettel out of the Russian Grand Prix on lap 1.
The overhead view makes it astonishingly clear who’s at fault. Follow the second red Ferrari as it gets bounced around between two blue Red Bulls near the apex of Turn 2. The onboard view from Kvyat’s car is even more clear:
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Kvyat first got into the rear of Vettel at turn 2, putting Vettel’s Ferrari into the other Red Bull car of Daniel Ricciardo. Then at turn 3, Kvyat rear-ended Vettel again, putting Vettel into the wall. Vettel’s race was over.
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To put it nicely, this is an astonishingly bush-league pair of moves from someone who’s supposed to be in the top level of motorsport. Vettel was understandably a bit more blunt about that, given the situation:
Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased. Vettel shouted over the team radio:
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Who the fuck? Oh, I’m out. Crashed! Somebody hit me in the rear [at] turn two, and then somebody hit me in the fucking rear again at turn 3. For fuck’s sake, honestly! What the fuck are we doing here?
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Sebastian Vettel was so angry with Kvyat’s behavior for a second race in a row that he went to have a word with his former team principal at Red Bull, Christian Horner.
I can’t think of a wall I’d love to be a fly on more than that one. Is this going to end in a NASCAR-style fight in the pits?
Regardless, Kvyat was given a ten-second stop and go penalty for the avoidable contact.
Vettel and Kvyat weren’t the only incident in a very messy turn 2. Sauber driver Esteban Gutiérrez was given a drive-thru penalty for a collision with the Force India car of Nico Hülkenberg.
UPDATE: Kvyat took responsibility for the melee in his post-race remarks.
Kvyat told broadcasters:
Obviously, all the mess came from me. Of course, this doesn’t feel great, but sometimes these things happen in lap 1. This is probably the messiest lap 1 that’s happened in my career, and obviously, usually I learn from it and I think I should be able to fine next time and of course, apologize to everyone who was involved, and yeah. We will learn from it.
Kvyat also mentioned that he’d try to talk it out with Ricciardo and Vettel as well. Hopefully that happens after Vettel’s cooled off a bit.
Kvyat’s comments to NBC Sports’ Luke Smith were a bit more “come at me, bro,” but it sounds like he wants to discuss the issue privately with his team for now:
Probably the whole paddock wants an apology from me. We’ll speak inside the team. Easy to attack now. Go on, attack me, no problem.
Three penalty points were given to Kvyat over the two first lap incidents, per F1 Fanatic. Additionally, Carlos Sainz and Esteban Gutiérrez were given two penalty points each—Sainz for pushing Jolyon Palmer off track between turns 2 and 3 and Gutiérrez for his incident on lap 1. Kvyat currently has 5 penalty points for the season, and any driver who accumulates 12 penalty points immediately gets a one-race ban.
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