Vettel critical of 'too optimistic' Sutil

Sutil seemed to leave his braking way too late going into Turn 4 on the opening lap, the German going off track to avoid the cars in front.

When he returned to the Tarmac, he spun and stopped in front of Vettel, who could do nothing to avoid him.

Vettel's car was too damaged to continue, meaning his fourth consecutive retirement and the third on the opening lap this year.

"This is very disappointing, especially as there was nothing I could do about it," said Vettel. "The collision happened at Turn 4, when Adrian (Sutil) was far too optimistic in attempting an overtaking manoeuvre. He clipped an other car and that spun him round right in front of me.

"I tried to get through on the inside, but there was no way for me to go. I might have managed it, but I had a Super Aguri also trying to get past it. We'll just have to try again in Istanbul.

"Hopefully we can get the new car soon and move out of the back of the pack, where I have had so many problems at the start of races."

Toro Rosso's poor day was completed by another incident involving Sebastien Bourdais, who made contact with Renault's Nelsinho Piquet when the Brazilian was trying to recover ground after going off track earlier on.

The Renault driver dove down the inside of Bourdais going into Turn 10, and the duo crashed into each other when the Frenchman tried to make the corner.

Bourdais said Piquet was not close enough to make a move.

"I would not like to say exactly what happened until I see the replay," he said. "All I know is that I checked my mirrors and Nelson did not seem to be in a position to attack, even though he was close to me, but not close enough.

"I braked for Turn 10 quite late, started to turn into the corner and all of a sudden, he was there alongside me as I turned. That was the end of the story. It's a shame as we had done a pretty good job this weekend up to that point."