World championship contender Sebastian Vettel blamed Kimi Raikkonen for his own retirement in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull Racing driver, who has won twice so far this season, retired from the race on lap 32 with front suspension damage after making contact with the Ferrari driver at the start.

“I had a collision,” Vettel told the BBC. “I made contact in first corner with Kimi. I was on the inside, had a clean run to accelerate and then his car came sideways and yeah, we touched. He crashed into my car, so…

“It can happen, but in the end I mean it was the reason why the first pitstop already was bad. And then at some point the front left suspension gave up and we had to retire the car.”

Vettel started as one of the favourites for victory in Budapest but instead lost ground to Jenson Button in the title battle and also dropped behind his team-mate Mark Webber in the points. The Australian was beaten in to third position in the race by the KERS-equipped Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

Vettel admitted that he had been surprised by the pace of the McLaren in particular, but added that having KERS at the start was an advantage and caused extra complications in to Turn 1.

“Well race pace definitely,” when asked about the Mclaren’s speed. “Qualifying I think it was, you know, I think we knew that here it would be a little bit closer, but unfortunately you know at the start there is nothing you can do when pushing your foot down.

“We do have a button as well on the steering wheel but nothing happens if we press it, so for sure it’s a shame, and we go into turn one and you have five, six cars, you know, next to each other instead of three or four so it’s a different situation.”

Source - Autosport 

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation