Monday's papers say Vettel deserved penalty and Hamilton forced him into "another mistake"
Monday 10 June 2019 12:47, UK
Sebastian Vettel deserved his Canadian GP penalty after "buckling under pressure" from Lewis Hamilton, according to Monday's newspapers.
Debate over whether Vettel warranted the five-second penalty that cost him the race victory has rippled through the F1 paddock - with the Sky F1 pundits believing it was "harsh" - but Monday's papers claim Vettel can only blame himself and shouldn't lambast race stewards.
Jonathan McEvoy says in The Daily Mail that, though Vettel protested, he wouldn't have been in a position to get penalised had he not made a mistake on Lap 48, running onto the grass at Turn Three before almost colliding with Hamilton.
"At the root of it all is this truth: Vettel made yet another mistake. While leading. On a dry track," writes McEvoy. "If he hadn't erred, it would not have mattered what the stewards thought.
"I find it hard to accept Vettel had no awareness, even in the rapid sequence of events, that he was putting himself in the only place he could to hold on to the lead."
Rebecca Clancy agreed in The Times: "For me, it was a penalty. Vettel focused purely on the penalty after the race and almost seemed to forget that it was his mistake that had caused it.
"His mistake which had left the track clear for a faster Hamilton to take advantage. His mistake which left him careering over the track and almost slammed Hamilton into the wall."
Clancy also felt that Hamilton forced the error from Vettel.
"What is not spoken about enough in this situation is that, yet again, pressure from Hamilton caused Vettel to make a mistake," she stated.
"Hamilton is simply one of the greatest drivers in the sport ever, and anyone, including a four-times world champion, would buckle under pressure from him."
Oliver Brown described the incident as an "inexcusable error" in The Telegraph and added: "Vettel has a history of dubious judgements whenever Hamilton swarming in his mirrors.
"Sure enough, under another remorseless challenge from his arch-rival here in Canada, the pressure told once more."
McEvoy also concentrated on Vettel and his 'history'.
"Vettel has history as a hot-headed miscreant," he wrote. "Having steered deliberately into Hamilton at Baku in 2017, the lowest act of his career and one that provided a sliver of context to Sunday's far, far less heinous - natural, even - act of lead-preservation."
McEvoy even compared Canada 2019 to Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill's infamous clash in Adelaide 25 years ago, before concluding:
"The final point that needs to be underlined in all this talk of right and wrong is that without the stewards' intervention Vettel would have been rewarded for running off track and Hamilton denied victory for applying the race-defining pressure. And where would the justice have been in that?"
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