Sebastian Vettel Disqualified From Hungarian Grand Prix

The world of Formula 1 motor racing is so often full of unpredictable twists and turns and after a thrilling Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday afternoon there was another unforeseeable and highly dramatic development late yesterday evening long after the chequered flag had flown. At 10pm local time the stewards at the Hungaroring issued a bulletin advising that second placed Sebastian Vettel had been disqualified as FIA officials had not been able to extract a required one litre fuel sample from his Aston Martin car during post race scrutineerig, having only been able to obtain 0.3 of a litre. The team believed there still to be 1.44 litres of fuel in the car after removal of the 300 millilitre sample, but was unable to extract it and the FIA rejected its defence that no performance advantage had been gained.

Rules are rules, but this seemed to be an unduly harsh punishment for the German multiple champion who, together with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, had battled superbly for the victory from start to finish. His disqualification promoted Mercedes driver Sir Lewis Hamilton to second place and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to third, with Fernando Alonso (team-mate of the winner Ocon) rising to fourth. It also resulted in Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and George Russell both moving up one position to seventh and eighth ahead of now ninth placed Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen as the last points scorer. Red Bull had endured a second consecutive difficult race as Bottas’ errant behaviour at the first start had caused significant damage to Verstappen’s car and also put Pérez’s out in the same incident, adding to the team’s repair bills when funds are already restricted by the budget cap and with Vettel’s disqualification increasing Hamilton’s lead over Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.

However, with the Aston Martin team advising the stewards of their intent to appeal the ruling, the final, if provisional version of the official race results issued in Hungary still showed Vettel in second place and as per what was included in my report yesterday, with the two championship tables as yet also unchanged. So, we shall have to await further developments on this front even if it is highly questionable as to whether the judgment will in due course be overturned. All very F1.