Vettel drew the stewards’ attention to Alonso’s maneuver
After the Italian Grand Prix that he won, Sebastian Vettel visited the race stewards to ask them to review the footage of his overtaking maneuver on Fernando Alonso so they could assess the latter's behavior.
In the fifth of the 53 laps that made up the 2011 Italian Grand Prix, the victory was decided. Indeed, it was during this lap that Sebastian Vettel, with a courageous overtaking maneuver, got the better of Fernando Alonso. It was a risky move that saw the German go around the outside of the Ferrari driver in the Curva Grande, a high-speed curve between the first two chicanes of the Monza circuit.
Once the two men were side by side, Vettel had to put two wheels on the grass to avoid the risk of a collision. A small hitch that wasn’t enough to make the reigning world champion slow down, as he eventually took the lead a few hectometers later at the chicane braking. Forty-eight laps later, Vettel raised his fist once again and could savor an eighth victory this season, before likely soon enjoying a second consecutive title.
The Red Bull driver did not only do that, as our British colleagues from TheF1Times.com reveal that the German went to race control after the end of the Grand Prix to ask the stewards to review footage of the overtaking to decide whether or not Fernando Alonso should be penalized. As a reminder, the fourth steward at Monza was Derek Daly. A request that was apparently not followed up on, as the only driver penalized after the race was Vitantonio Liuzzi for his responsibility in the start pile-up.
Sebastian Vettel described his overtaking in the press conference: « I spontaneously decided to go left and thought: « I hope he saw me because he’s going left, left, left ». There wasn’t much space. I stayed on the accelerator but luckily the corner opened up, I had two wheels on the grass, and once side by side, he was fully aware that I was still there and that there would be another battle under braking. I braked first and he a bit later, but I had the inside so I was quite relieved and I took the lead ».
During the same post-race press conference, Fernando Alonso admitted to being rather rough, offering a lukewarm apology to Vettel: “We have nothing to lose in battles with Sebastian. He leads the championship by 100 points, I think, so when we have to defend, we’ll be a bit tougher with him. [Turns to Vettel] Sorry.” As a reminder, Alonso is second in the championship, trailing Sebastian Vettel by 112 points, which equates to four wins and a fourth place with only six races remaining.
