Nico Hulkenberg has come to Narain Karthikeyan’s defence following his Malaysian clash with Sebastian Vettel, which resulted in the double world champion calling the Indian an ‘idiot’.
The HRT and Red Bull drivers came together in the closing stages of last weekends Malaysian GP. Whilst many believed Vettel to be at fault, after he pulled in ahead of Karthikeyan too quickly and hit his front-wing, dropping him from fourth to 11th after a stop to change his punctured tyre, the FIA sided with Vettel and imposed a 20-second post-race time penalty on Karthikeyan.
The clash led to Vettel saying the following after the race: “Like on normal roads, you have some idiots driving around. It seems there is also one driving here,” he told the BBC.
Force India’s Hulkenberg disagrees, and believes it was Vettel at fault on Sunday.
“I heard about whatever happened and I also saw it on TV,” he said. “From what I saw, it was not Narain’s fault. So, I don’t really understand why he [Vettel] said all of that.
“I think Vettel was just emotional at that point of time. He lost out on points, it was frustrating for him and his team. At the end of the day, he is just human and sometimes you get emotional.”
