Mercedes Russian GP formation lap pace 'ridiculous', says Vettel
Sebastian Vettel believes the way Mercedes aggressively backed up the Formula 1 field during the Russian Grand Prix formation lap and at one of the safety car restarts was "ridiculous"
On the formation lap, it appeared like Lewis Hamilton was dropping back from the pole-sitting Mercedes of Nico Rosberg on the approach to the grid with Vettel hustling Hamilton in a bid to get him to speed up.
At the second safety car restart, Vettel said Hamilton was going too slow and braking aggressively which had a knock-on effect on those behind.
"I just thought he was going unreasonably slowly," Vettel told reporters ahead of Sunday's United States Grand Prix at Austin.
"There was no reason to go that slow. If you want to pack up the field you can do it earlier and not in the very last bit.
"So I tried to tell them, 'look, go', because it's just ridiculous.
"You also need to be aware that if you stop that suddenly and aggressively, then five cars back it has a much different effect than when you are the car just behind.
"Also the restart was quite smelly and not the way to do it. There is a rule.
"For the formation lap I tried to show him there was no reason to go that slow.
"It was both of them that were going very slow, and at the restart it was something similar.
"So maybe they need to look into it again."
The sporting regulations say "No car may be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person at any time whilst the safety car is deployed", and the stewards chose not to take any action against Hamilton.
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