Sebastian Vettel sees no point looking back at Singapore GP crash

Vettel was poised to retake the drivers' standings lead from rival Lewis Hamilton after qualifying on pole in Singapore, but suffered a major setback to his title hopes instead when he crashed with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull's Max Verstappen within yards of the start.

While the stewards ruled that nobody was predominantly to blame for the incident, Verstappen was among those who argued Vettel was at fault for chopping across to defend his lead.

Asked on Thursday at Sepang whether the Singapore incident would prompt a change in approach, Vettel said: "I don't think it is necessary to discuss it. With things like this happening, what can you do?

"If obviously you have a major problem with the car, or if you have done a major mistake, then it is a different story.

"If there is something you need to change, then you need to react quickly to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Then it might be a different story."

He described the incident as "part of racing" and said it would be a waste to spend any more energy reflecting on it.

"It would have been more different if I had lost the car somewhere in the race, then it is obviously different," Vettel said.

"We did our start, everyone was trying to do his start, and then it ended up pretty bad for all three of us.

"It is part of racing. These things, they happen, not much you can do - so therefore not much point to try and look at them again and again.

"It is better if your time and energy is spent looking forward."

Vettel insisted Singapore was unlikely to be on his mind during the Malaysian GP start on Sunday.

"Every start is different," he said.

"The way Singapore happened, you can look at it again and again. It is done.

"It was pretty unfortunate for all three of us, so we have to move on.

"I can't promise you now what will be in my mind on Sunday when I leave the grid but probably I never thought about the last race [at other starts] so I am pretty sure I will be focused on what I will do on this start on Sunday."