Formula 1: Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has had to get used to a very different Formula 1 than the one with which he was familiar for the last two years, and it appears to have taken some time.

Early in the season, there was the odd hint of frustration as Vettel re-adjusted his mindset to the fact that he no longer had the fastest car on the grid.

But despite an up-and-down start to 2012, in which he did not take his first win until the fourth race of the season, Vettel's many qualities have remained on show and he has been a consistent presence at the top of the championship.

Team: Red Bull Team-mate: Mark Webber Previous teams: BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso Nationality: German Born: 3/07/1987, Heppenheim Grand Prix debut: US 2007 World Championships: 2010, 2011 Vettel has struggled when the car has not been to his liking, and he has not enjoyed the same dominance over team-mate Mark Webber as he did in 2011.

But any poor qualifying result - China and Monaco, for example - has tended to be followed by a strong race performance.

And he and Red Bull have generally done well in maximising their opportunities.

Pole position in Bahrain was followed by a win which, for all its superficial resemblance to his many in 2011, was hard-fought and required coolness and steadfastness in defence from Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus.

Vettel remains electric over one lap in a car with which he is happy, but his race form has if anything been more impressive this year.

He remains a force to be reckoned with and can be expected to be a serious contender for the rest of the season.

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Vettel deserved penalty in home race

Sebastian Vettel was involved in two controversial incidents during the German Grand Prix - and in both of them he was in the wrong.

The first was when Lewis Hamilton unlapped himself on the Red Bull, provoking Vettel to wave his hand at Hamilton during the race and call him "stupid" afterwards.

Hamilton was absolutely right to do what he did.

It is true he had nothing to do with the battle for the race win, in which Vettel was trying to challenge Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

But if a racing driver is trying to make up some ground he has lost, get past the leaders in that way and get himself back into the race again, maybe score some points, why shouldn't he?

Hamilton's decision was right. He was very unlucky to get a puncture at the beginning of the race and he was entitled to try to recover. You never know what is going to unfold in a grand prix and a driver has to do the best he can.

Gary Anderson BBC F1 technical analyst

"The rules are clear and it was a deserved penalty"

Hamilton was in a McLaren, he was faster than Vettel at the time, he had fresher tyres, and he did not put Vettel at risk in any way.

It was a completely legal move. Obviously, it was not the best thing for Vettel, who was trying to stay close to Alonso, but it did not change anything in the outcome of the race.

I think Vettel was a bit anxious in Germany. It was his home grand prix, he wanted to win and he didn't quite have the pace to challenge Alonso, who was defending very well.

Vettel appeared to be in too much of a hurry to win. He was pushing a lot, making some mistakes and the manoeuvre he did on Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button was another example.

Button had "undercut" Vettel and taken second place by making his final pit stop a lap earlier, and it was as if Vettel did not want to believe Button could finish in front of him.

Vettel closed in on Button and overtook him around the outside of the hairpin on the penultimate lap - but he went completely off the track on the exit of the corner to do it.

There are track limits and Vettel did not respect them. The move was not legal and the penalty, which demoted him to fifth place, was fair.

But it shows how much he wanted to force the situation - and doing so cost him some points.

German GP 2012: Alonso wins at Hockenheim

Normally, Vettel's style is to be calm and smooth, but in Germany he looked impatient.

He has to understand that it is about getting points for the championship.

Look at the way Alonso reacted when Ferrari misunderstood the tyres and got their strategy a bit wrong in Canada and at Silverstone. He didn't crash or make mistakes - he took a fifth place and a second.

You need to know when it is your time and when it is not - and Alonso's understanding of that is why he is leading the championship.

He is consistent and he knows how to deal with pressure and how important it is to score regularly, especially now F1 is so tight.

Alonso's race was a complete contrast to Vettel's. He was under a lot of pressure, but he knew exactly where he needed to attack and how to defend and he drove fantastically to deal with that.

And Ferrari did a brilliant job on strategy - they were always able to react to the intentions of the other drivers to try to "undercut" them at the pit stops.

It was very close, but the driver and the team did a super job. It was a great win and well deserved.

Formula 1 is never easy to understand completely accurately because it is so complicated and events in Germany, in the wake of what happened in the races before that, are a perfect example.

In Valencia two races ago, Vettel was completely dominant until retiring with an alternator failure - he was 1.5 seconds-per-lap faster than anyone else. It was like 2011 all over again.

It was enormously impressive and I thought Red Bull had found the key solution to gaining back a lot of rear downforce - which the teams have lost this year as a result of the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers, last year's dominant technology.

You looked at Valencia and thought Red Bull were going to dominate in the next race at Silverstone as well. Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber did win there, but the advantage from Valencia had disappeared.

At Hockenheim last weekend, it was more or less the same as at Silverstone. The pace of the Red Bull and Ferrari was very similar.

Then, on Sunday morning, there was a big mess surrounding Red Bull's engine mapping. Governing body the FIA said it was in contravention of the rules and then the stewards cleared Red Bull, but also said they did "not accept all the arguments of the team".

I don't know what Red Bull are doing, but the FIA looked at it in Hockenheim and said it was legal.

Fine - Red Bull have been more intelligent than the other teams because they have done something within the rules that no-one else has and, by the look of it, it is benefiting them.

But the speed advantage they had in Valencia has disappeared and this is confusing because in F1 you just don't gain 1.5secs from one race to another, and you don't lose it either.

I have no idea why that happened and we will probably never know, but it is something to bear in mind.

Jaime Alguersuari was a Toro Rosso F1 driver from 2009-11. He is BBC Radio 5 live's analyst and a Pirelli F1 test driver. He was talking to BBC Sport's Andrew Benson

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Vettel penalised for Button pass

Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel has been penalised for passing McLaren's Jenson Button while off-track during the German Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Vettel was given a 20-second penalty, which drops him from second to fifth place.

The race stewards decided Vettel had "left the track and gained an advantage when he rejoined".

The incident happened when they were battling for second on the penultimate lap of the race.

“The only intention was not to crash and to give him enough room”

Sebastian Vettel The penalty promotes Kimi Raikkonen to third and Kamui Kobayashi to fourth in a race which was won by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

After the race Button said: "Sebastian [Vettel]'s pass was a pretty straightforward matter: the rules state that you can't go off the track to gain an advantage.

"The thing is, there would have been more opportunities for him before the end of the race as my rear tyres were damaged. That's because I had to push hard to try and catch Fernando [Alonso], which meant I had nothing left for the end of the race.

"We pretty much ran out of rubber two laps before the end."

Vettel defended his actions but accepted the penalty: "I wasn't sure where he was, I couldn't see him in that moment, so decided to give enough space and went off line on the slippery paint and I was able to stay ahead and get past him.

"The only intention was not to crash and to give him enough room. I have respect for him and I didn't want to squeeze him.

"It was good to be on the podium at the home race, but I have to respect the steward's decision."

After the race, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: "The rules are clear, the driver has to leave enough room for the other. There wasn't enough room for both. It was really a racing incident. I think it would be harsh to penalise him."

But following the decision, Horner added: "It was disappointing to receive the penalty after the race but we accept this."

Vettel penalty harsh - Horner

Button passed Vettel during the second round of stops after McLaren performed what they claim to be the fastest stationary pit stop in history at 2.31 seconds.

The McLaren driver then gave chase to leader Alonso but began struggling with his tyres in the closing stages, which allowed Vettel to close the gap.

The Red Bull driver attempted a pass around the outside of the Turn 6 hairpin, but Button defended his position while giving Vettel space.

Vettel took to the run-off placing all four wheels off track, before sweeping back onto the circuit and completing the move. Drivers are not allowed to gain position while going off the track.

Button immediately radioed his team saying: "Did Sebastian just pass me off the circuit?"

As they waited for the podium ceremony, Button said to Vettel: "They are going to investigate your overtake by the way." Vettel responded: "I didn't know where you were."

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Vettel defiant after rule change

Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull will not be significantly affected by a rule change banning a controversial engine setting used by them at the last race.

A new rule has been issued ahead of Sunday's Hungarian GP to prevent Red Bull running specific settings aimed at improving cornering performance.

Vettel said: "It's not as if the car doesn't work any more. I'm quite confident nothing will change.

"There is probably more fuss outside the car than the difference is inside."

Pressed on whether the changes would make no difference at all, he said: "I wouldn't say that. What we had in the car in Hockenheim we decided to race because we believed it was quickest.

Race wins: Three (Webber two, Vettel one) Podiums: Five (Vettel three, Webber two) Points accumulated: 230 "It is a little bit different for here. It is hard to give you, I don't know, 0.2secs, 0.05secs, nothing. We can't measure [the difference] either."

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber added: "[The difference will be] very, very small, I would say. The guys haven't really even spoken to me much about it. It seems pretty tame on our side, so we'll just get on with it."

The rule change restricts the amount teams can change the torque - or pushing force - of the engine from race to race.

Governing body the FIA was concerned that Renault were doing this to enhance the driveability - and therefore performance - of the engine in a fashion that attempted to go some way towards traction control.

And rival teams felt that the maps also enhanced the degree to which exhausts could be used for aerodynamic effect, which has been severely restricted this year.

But Renault said the engine "is in no way being used as a driver aid or traction control" and added that the effect of exhausts on aerodynamics this year was "incidental".

The controversy over engine settings was one of three in which Vettel found himself embroiled at the German Grand Prix.

The others were calling McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton's actions "stupid" for unlapping himself on Vettel during the race and interfering with the lead battle, and then being demoted from second to fifth for overtaking Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button by going off the track.

After the race in Germany, Vettel had said of Hamilton: "That was not nice of him. I don't see the point why he's trying to race us.

"If he wants to go fast he can drop back, find a gap and go fast there. But it's a bit stupid to disturb the leaders. He was a lap down so I don't see the point anyways. I think that potentially lost us the position to Jenson."

German GP 2012: Alonso wins at Hockenheim

But after arriving in Hungary, Vettel denied calling Hamilton stupid and blamed the media, saying journalists had misheard him.

"If I say after the race that I thought it was unnecessary and then it gets quoted that I said he is stupid, it's quite disappointing because sometimes I have a mouth, I say a couple of words, you have ears, and in that process it seems mistakes sometimes happen," Vettel said.

"If you look at the rules, it's clear you are allowed to do it [unlap yourself]. I said it was unnecessary.

"I was hunting Fernando, it was a couple of laps to the stop, it didn't help me, it probably helped Jenson, but that's racing.

"I'm not complaining. I said it was unnecessary from a racing point of view to distract the leaders no matter who it was, and that's it."

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Hamilton pass was stupid - Vettel

By Andrew Benson Chief F1 writer at Hockenheim Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel called McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton "stupid" for racing him in Germany when he was a lap behind.

Hamilton, delayed by an early puncture, was trying to make up ground and passed Vettel as the German was racing with eventual winner Fernando Alonso.

Vettel said: "I don't see the point in him trying to race us. It is a bit stupid to race the leaders."

“I don't think we need a different rule. I didn't expect him to attack”

Sebastian Vettel Vettel said it caused him temporarily to lose second place to Jenson Button.

The world champion was passed by the Englishman at the second pit stops, but regained the position two laps from the end, although he is under investigation by the stewards for a potentially illegal overtake.

"That potentially lost me the position to Jenson, I pitted two or three laps after that," Vettel said.

He added: "I don't think we need a different rule, if you want to go quick and you are a lap down and there is no chance to win the race, you should respect it and use common sense. I didn't expect him to attack."

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said: "Racing drivers race. If that's stupid, I don't know. [Lewis] was quicker. He overtook and he pulled away, I'm not sure of the stupidity in that but that's for others to comment on."

Hamilton then closed on Alonso, but the Spaniard did not let him get close enough to pass.

"I didn't feel any risk," Alonso said.

"I knew if Lewis was close enough and using the DRS [overtaking aid] and trying to overtake and going for it, I had no problems to leave the space.

"I knew he was not in the race, we did not want to risk anything.

0 - Sebastian Vettel continues his record of never having won an F1 race in July, after 10 attempts

"But for me it was a good to have Hamilton between me and Sebastian because we were approaching the pit stop time, and it means Lewis is one second behind me and Sebastian one to 1.5 seconds behind him. so Sebastian is 2.5 second behind me. So I tried to keep Lewis behind."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner added: "If you look at the rules, I don't think there is anything to say a car can't unlap itself.

"What was frustrating for us is that it cost us a second and unfortunately he didn't unlap himself from Fernando as well.

"A driver's emotions are going to be running high and its unusual. Usually when you lap a car it doesn't drive back past you.

"It was an unusual situation in that Lewis was on fresh tyres, he was a lap down. In Sebastian's opinion, it affected his race. It did affect his race.

"And of course that's frustrating if it doesn't affect two leaders identically but within the rules he did nothing wrong. Arguably he helped his team-mate."

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