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Brazilian GP: Fined Sebastian Vettel escapes grid penalty

Fined Vettel stays second on Brazilian GP grid; Stewards say Ferrari driver failed to carry out weighbridge procedure in 'safe and orderly' fashion, although did eventually turn off his car's engine

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Sebastian Vettel was investigated by the stewards after being called on to the weighbridge scales, refusing to turn his engine off and breaking them!

Sebastian Vettel has been fined and reprimanded, but escaped a grid penalty, at the Brazilian GP after a stewards investigation into his conduct at the weighbridge during qualifying.

Vettel will therefore still start second on Sunday's grid on the front row alongside polesitter Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferrari driver has been fined €25,000 and been issued with an official reprimand by Interlagos stewards.

The FIA had claimed that Vettel 'refused to turn off the engine' when called for weighing at the start of Q2, which made it 'difficult to get a stable result'. By then driving off down the pit lane, Vettel was also said to have 'destroyed the scales'.

After hearing from the driver and a Ferrari representative in the hours after qualifying, the stewards ruled Vettel had failed to follow the expected procedure in a 'safe and orderly' manner but stopped short of issuing a sterner penalty as he 'eventually stopped the engine' and a sufficient measurement was taken.

Vettel had been called to the weighbridge as he returned to the pits at the start of Q2.

The German knocked over a cone in front of the scales and then could be seen clapping his hands for the officials to speed up the process during his weighing, as he wanted to quickly make it to the Ferrari garage to change to soft tyres in the changing conditions.

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"They shouldn't call us," Vettel insisted after qualifying. "When the conditions are changing like that I think it's unfair if somebody is pulled in.

"I wanted them to hurry up."

Stewards rebuked Vettel for forcing an official, who was holding a 'brakes on' message, out of the way as he drove on to the scales.

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