Sebastian Vettel has apologised to team-mate Mark Webber for denying him the Malaysian Grand Prix victory after he chose to ignore team orders to remain in second place.
The German admitted after the race that he wasn’t proud of what he did, but he doesn’t expect it to cause any trouble between the pair.
“This is a victory I’m not proud of. It should have been Mark’s,” he said.
“We should have stayed in the positions we were in. I didn’t ignore it [the team order] on purpose but I messed up the situation.
“It doesn’t help his feelings right now. Apologies to Mark and now the result is there, but all I can say is that I didn’t do it deliberately.
“I think we don’t hate each other. There’s nothing to worry about for next races. I messed up today. It’s not easy to admit.”
Webber reportedly refused Vettel’s apology during the drivers’ press conference after the race, admitting they had agreed a plan before the race for such a scenario, which the triple world champion chose to ignore.
“I respect Sebastian. It’s still very raw at the moment. We had a plan before the race for this scenario,” he said angrily, before choosing to say nothing more on the matter. “Yeah, I should stop now.”
The team have opted to cancel the usual team victory photo in response to the controversy.
