Speaking to the BBC after this early exit from the Hungarian GP, Sebastian Vettel laid the blame with Kimi Raikkonen after their contact on lap 1 of the race.

Vettel had to retire from the grand prix on lap 32 with damaged suspension, which he believes was caused by Kimi hitting him as the cars fought for position at the start. Red Bull have confirmed it was front suspension damage that caused the DNF but yet to confirm the cause.

Sebastian Vettel told the BBC: ”We know the reason for my retirement: in the first corner I had contact with Kimi. He hit my front left [wing]; that was also the reason why the pit stop took very long. All of a sudden it was game over and the front-left suspension gave up. The start wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst. It doesn’t help when you have cars with Kers and then seven or eight cars competing at the first corner.”

As a championship contender Vettel was obviously disappointed to leave Budapest with no points but concluded that KERS may be on reason for the start being so much closer with more cars fighting for the lead positions thanks to their ‘boost’ button.

Raikkonen (car number 4) was under investigation after the race for this clash with Vettel, but the Race Stewards confirmed that Kimi would face no action as it was just a racing incident.

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation