Vettel incident: Narain remains as cool as a 'cucumber'

Last week at the Malaysian Grand Prix, reigning Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel had lashed out at Narain Karthikeyan after their clash in Sepang by calling him a cucumber. The German had clashed with the Indian driver, punctured his tyre and crossed the line a lowly 11th.

An indignant Vettel said on German RTL television, “He (Karthikeyan) was off the track. In my view, it was over. As in real life, there are a few cucumbers on the road. It’s extremely frustrating, because in a chaotic race where I lost the radio right at the beginning, a fourth place would have been satisfactory.”

Now Karthikeyan has responded to Vettel’s comment saying he doesn’t want to think too much about it. “Maybe he was in a bad mood. I’ll just try to do my job and leave this incident where it is,” the HRT driver told CNN-IBN.

When asked if he felt happy that other drivers such as David Coulthard had come out in his support, saying that Vettel was blowing things out proportion because he was probably frustrated, Karthikeyan said, “Absolutely yes. It was just a racing incident. I tried to explain it to the FIA stewards. It was very odd that they turned back to give me a penalty and it was very harsh. "

When asked if Vettel should have been given a penalty as well, he said, it was up to the FIA to decide if Vettel had breached the code of conduct.