Binotto: Vettel, Ferrari won today at Canadian GP

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says his team and Sebastian Vettel were the winners at the Canadian Grand Prix despite the German’s penalty which relegated him to second place behind Lewis Hamilton.

After Vettel was slapped with a five-second time by the FIA race stewards for re-joining the track in an unsafe manner having gone off at Turn 4, duly retaining his lead over Hamilton in the process, the German driver was left incensed by the decision as he ranted over team radio before continuing to vent his frustration after the podium ceremony.

Binotto has backed his driver and feels Ferrari produced a race-winning performance in Montreal despite the penalty handed to Vettel by the FIA race stewards.

“We won today. I think honestly we have been the fastest on track today and that is important,” Binotto told Sky Sports F1.

“Firstly it is not down to us to decide [the penalties] in this sport but if you look at the crowd, everybody seemed to believe that [it was wrong]. There was nothing that Sebastian could have done in that situation. I don’t think he had any bad intentions in what he was doing at all.

“He stayed ahead in the entire race until the chequered flag and to us he is our winner. As a team we have been competitive and we are fighting to win races so we will have a boost on this. The season is not over.”

The Ferrari boss also supported Vettel’s post-race reaction, including his pointed decision to swap the number 1 and number 2 finish boards between the spot where his car should have been parked and Hamilton’s, and was pleased to see the four-time F1 world champion’s “hunger” come out during the Canadian Grand Prix race weekend.

“It is a good sign, for a driver he is hungry and he has proven that yesterday in qualifying and today in the race,” he said. “We are all hungry here so I think that will certainly help us in the next few weeks, month and races.

“He was driving at the limit on every lap and every single corner, he did a mistake in that respect, it was borderline on the tyres so coming back on the track you have no grip as you were just on the grass so there is nothing you can do. That is what he did.”