Vettel 'won't lose sleep' over German GP crash

Sebastian Vettel insists he will not struggle to sleep after crashing out while leading the Formula 1 German Grand Prix. 

The polesitter controlled the opening stint and regained a comfortable buffer over teammate Kimi Raikkonen - after Ferrari opted to swap its cars with Raikkonen leading the middle phase of the race while running on a different strategy - but made a costly mistake at Turn 13 as rain started falling with 25 laps to go. 

Vettel ran deep into the corner and slid off track, through the gravel and into the barriers in the damp conditions, as he retired for the first time this season. The distraught German immediately opened his pit-to-car radio channel to apologise to his team.

“I don't think it was a huge mistake, a huge impact on the race, because we retired there,” Vettel admitted. “But it’s not like tonight I’ll have difficulties to fall asleep because of what I’ve done wrong. 

“I think it’s disappointing because up until that point everything was sweet, but as I said, we didn’t need the rain.”

With chief title rival Lewis Hamilton pulling off a remarkable win despite starting 14th after his hydraulic failure during qualifying, Vettel has fallen 17 points adrift heading to next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. 

But Vettel is remaining confident about Ferrari’s chances following a strong performance across the weekend in Hockenheim up until his error.

“We had a strong car, I think we can be as confident," he said. "It was a very positive weekend and it was just one of those moments, it’s my mistake, apologies to the team, they did everything right. 

“I had it in my hands, small mistakes, big disappointment.”