That's fair enough.

I just think it would have been fair either way.

I must admit I quite liked Vettel when he was on Top Gear but I do think he has got more arrogant since then. I personally never could stand Schumacher and never thought he was that great a driver. He was a dirty driver who was quite prepared to cheat and take people off in order to win a race.

I guess to be a great driver you probably do have to have a ruthless streak but it's a shame for me that some drivers seem so smug and arrogant (Allonso, Vettel) and others seem so nice (Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa)

Weasel words from Horner afterwards and hey you don't need to rely on code. Where was the "Seb, let Mark back through, racing was over !"

Anyway, Vettel understood the code and would no doubt have ignored direct orders too, I guess, but they could have at least made the effort.

Vettel knew it was a no loser to go for it, well as long as he didn't crash. What are RBR effectively going to do? Well, nothing and 7 more points evidently seem to Vettel worth much more than being bothered about getting a reputation as a piece of shit.

Who's the ruddy reserve driver ? I dare you, RBR, put him in for the next race, Of course you won't, so no real consequences.

of course vettel understood the code. hes just a bitter, horrible person. not the 1st time hes completely ignored direct orders from the team.

Only he didn't say that even although Lewis had a problem and was limping at the end. How pathetic at the end of the race was the sight of two F1 cars not even accelerating to a moderate level and all because only one was low on fuel.

Lewis only had to race Jenson at Mclaren but it still resulted in bumper cars and Jenson ahead of Lewis in the WDC.

Everybody thought Lewis went to Mercedes for the money but clearly it was for the team orders.

Given the tyre issues RB had been experiencing, I found it a strange call by Mercedes.

Surely with the possibility of Vettel/Webber having to slow down, then the proper call would have been to get Rossberg up the road to be in a better position to pick up points should the tyre gremlins strike.

...or Mercedes simply have team orders to hold station at that stage and it would have worked in favour of Rosberg if the other way round.

I wouldn't say he is horrible but he does have a tendency to throw toys out of the pram when things do not go his way.

I guess he just wants to win at any cost. You could call that selfish and greedy, but then every point counts and could you blame him?

It is a difficult one. But he just needs to get less irate when he doesn't get a clear route to position #1.

What a wonderful suggestion, sadly its a non-starter since it would lessen the chance of the team earning constructor's points. Although it would certainly guarantee compliance in the future.

I think Alonso has come out of this well.
With all the attention on Vettel/Webber and a lesser extent on Hamilton/Rosberg, I don't seem to have heard any questions/reasons why he didn't come into the pits at the end of lap 1.
The reporter on 5live said the pit crew were expecting him.

Yes the Ferrari team had a new nose ready for him,Alonso didn't pit when he had the chance, and the rest is history

Sky had TV pictures of it and the mechanics all ready

Now the tyres are to be changed to make Red Bull win all the time again.

F1 is so fake!

Exactly this in the Mercedes team. Whoever was in front was to hold the lead, unless they had a feasible chance of getting up a podium step, or danger came from behind. It could have been either of them in front, and it looked as though Lewis was the more upset of the two by gaining that advantage.

Spot on.

Can you imagine the F1 media treating things the same had say Alonso/Massa had those team orders behind the two Red Bull's for the final podium space and it had been Hamilton who had gone into the back of Vettel in lap 1 damaging his car; and then failed to go into the pits at the end of that lap and having the same DNF in lap 2.

I think we all know the answer is No; as THE story of this race would be about Hamilton making another calamitous mistake.. .

As a viewer Im all for team mates racing each other.... however all parties must know thats the case or its just plain cheating. But then Vettel looked straight into the camera and said he didnt know that he wasn't supposed to be racing Webber to the end of the race..... yeah right. .... no wonder Mark didnt accept the apology if it was basically sorry i didnt know and not sorry i broke the pact ...and another schumaker is born.

Lewis .. nice to hear him taking the mick out of himself when he said he did a Button when he pulled up in the wrong garage,

I'm no fan of Hamilton but thought he handled the podium interview well. Unless he was just saying what he thought the public wanted to hear and was actually happy he got third and didn't care what happened to Rosberg. But knowing that they were team-mates in the past, I thought it was fitting to mention on the podium that Rosberg should have been in his place. I hope it's not soured the team spirit and introduced any animosity.

If I had been in third and if Rosberg was not needing to conserve fuel, I would have sent him after the Red Bulls. There's always a danger of the two leading cars tangling and resulting in a slow lap time or puncture and to make Rosberg wait when there was an (albeit slim) chance for him to get second or even win is something I'd happily take fourth place for. Swapping the two Mercedes over was not going to change their constructor points.

But maybe that (allowing a team-mate ahead of you) is the attitude that doesn't make you world champion.

Thing is you have just proved you are, and its still an understatement.

No geek on F1 but surely its all about winning isnt it? Whatever Vettel says he strikes me as someone who wants as many titles as he possibly can and after three in a row that feeling must be supercharged. No other reason for ignoring team orders than for another 25 points. Does that make him bad? Annoying if your not a fan for definite.

yes - but it's a team sport

And Vettel has shown once again that he's not a team player.

Yes, but it's about winning the constructors' championship, that's where the money comes from, not the drivers' championship.

Without constructors' championship money a fair few drivers wouldn't have a drive as they would need to bring in more sponsorship themselves.

When you've got cars in a guaranteed 1-2 it's nonsensical for them to race so hard for a measly 7 points in a season that's only just begun. And 7 points isn't ever going to be the difference between Vettel and Webber, and Vettel knows that.

So all he was doing was feeding his own ego, and making himself wildly unpopular at the same time, especially as Webber's generally respected on the grid. Vettel's an idiot, and I don't know how anyone can defend what he did today, particularly given his pathetic excuses afterwards.

All he's done is damage his own reputation - it's all very well being a decent driver (though I think he's far from the best on the grid), but if you're not a team player then you might find it very hard to get a drive when the inevitable day comes that your contract ends or your team isn't competitive anymore...

Oh good grief, Lewis doesn't run the team, Brawn does. It was HIS team orders, not Lewis's. Would you be saying the same if Ferrari had been in that position and ordered Massa to stay behind Alonso? I doubt you would have called those 'Alonso's orders'....

There was no sense in Rosberg going through - he didn't have enough time to catch the leaders, so the sensible thing was for all of them to conserve their engines as much as possible, and Hamilton had earned his third place so he may as well just have kept it. Exact same applied to Red Bull, only Vettel didn't have the maturity or common sense to comply. Rosberg showed maturity in eventually accepting the decision, whereas Vettel just showed he is nothing but egotistical.

Vettel being an utter tw*t, no surprise there, hopefully people will start to wake up to it.

Glad to see Hamilton in third, fair dues to him for coming out and saying Nico should of been stood on the podium.

Now THAT I would like to see. God knows Mark has earned the right to do that after the last few years

Surely the orders should have been to let Rosberg have a go at the Red Bulls if he's faster.There was still 11 laps to go with an 8 second gap.He could have put pressure on the leaders and maybe push them of the tyre cliff.

I feel Webber deserved a lot better than what he got today. My feeling is though that the team is built around Vettel that it doesn't seem to be a level playing field

Found the drivers interviews uncomfortable listening. A situation that needs sorting out pronto