Sebastian Vettel Apologises to Lance Stroll for Tagging Him During the Italian Grand Prix

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was in all sorts of trouble during the Italian Grand Prix 2019. Last year, he attempted a divebomb down the inside of Lewis Hamilton and got it horribly wrong. He spun and dropped well down the order, leaving Kimi Raikkonen to fend off the Mercedes duo alone.

Fast-forward to 12 months later, and it was deja vu, as he spun yet again, leaving Charles LeClerc alone. Unfortunately for the German, the incident had more dire consequences for his Ferrari. To make matters worse, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was an innocent victim when Vettel tried to hastily rejoin.

After the race, Sebastian Vettel manned up and personally went to apologise to Stroll. Both their races got compromised as they were in the points, with Vettel running 4th. Sadly, the incident left Stroll and Vettel languishing in 12th and 13th respectively.

Since both drivers returned to the circuit in a dangerous manner, with Stroll forcing Pierre Gasly to take avoiding action, penalties were dished out. However, Vettel was slapped with a 10-second stop and go penalty, while Stroll had a drive through. Surprisingly, Stroll was of the opinion that he should have received the same penalty as Sebastian Vettel.

“He got a 10-second stop and go, I got a drive-through,” said the Canadian, “so I think that is not really fair because it was exactly the same thing that I did. I think it should have been an identical penalty.

“Seb came back on the track very aggressively,” he admitted, “I was as cautious as I could be with the yellow flags but he was literally blocking the circuit coming back on the track the way he was.

“I tried to avoid him but I think he clipped me, he clipped my rear-right and that spun me around. From there I came back on without being able to see anyone coming from my right so I tried to get back.”