Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda believes Sebastian Vettel took too big a risk at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix and threw away valuable championship points.
Vettel retired from the race on the opening lap after sustaining damage to his car in a collision with Max Verstappen and teammate Kimi Raikkonen. The accident cleared the way for Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton to take an unexpected victory in Singapore and extend his championship lead over Vettel to 28 points.
The stewards deemed the collision to be a racing incident, but Lauda was in no doubt that Vettel caused the accident by attempting to cover the inside line on the run down to Turn 1.
"Officially, after the race, the stewards called it a racing incident," Lauda told Die Welt. "To be honest, that surprised me a little bit.
"The stewards' statement was very detailed as to which driver or which car was at which point at which time -- who was half a metre in front or to the side or behind in comparison to the other cars. For me it was quite obvious that Sebastian went left after the start to defend from Max Verstappen who was driving in the middle, but at the same time he didn't seem to be aware that this was a very risky manoeuvre in front of an entire field of drivers. I think Sebastian should have anticipated that his teammate Kimi could be driving to the left of Verstappen.
"The accident was triggered by Sebastian's movement to the left, of course you can call this a racing incident, but in this case it was Sebastian's fault."
After a convincing qualifying performance put him on pole position on Saturday, Vettel was the favourite to win in Singapore. With that in mind, Lauda said he could not understand why the Ferrari driver was so aggressive at the start of the race.
"If I'm leading in the world championship, I wouldn't take such a risk in the first turn. Especially not on a race or a circuit where I was starting as the favourite. This is my clear analysis."
Lauda believes Hamilton in his current form will be hard to beat this year.
"Lewis is driving at a very high performance level and you can't take this advantage away from him. My wish is that it stays like that and to be honest, I am convinced of that -- he makes no mistakes. Let me say it clearly, Lewis drove perfectly while Sebastian gave away valuable points."