Stroll: Vettel deserved same penalty I got at Italian GP

Lance Stroll feels the penalty Sebastian Vettel received during the Italian Grand Prix should have been the same as his given the similarity between their incidents.

After Vettel spun entering the Ascari chicane on Lap 6, the Ferrari driver returned to the circuit in front of Stroll which caused a collision and duly spun the Racing Point driver into an off.

In a near-identical situation to Vettel, Stroll then re-entered the track in front of racing traffic which forced Pierre Gasly into avoiding action and across the gravel trap on the exit of the chicane.

While Stroll was given a drive-through penalty by the FIA Stewards for his incident with Gasly, Vettel was given a harsher 10-second stop and go penalty for his incident.

The Canadian driver has defended four-time Formula 1 world champion Vettel by explaining that given both incidents were very similar so the same penalty should have been applied.

“I got a drive-through, so I think that is not really fair because it was exactly the same thing that I did,” Stroll said. “I think it should have been an identical penalty, both a drive-through.

“Seb came back on the track very aggressively, I was as cautious as I could be with the yellow flags but he was literally blocking the circuit coming back on the track the way he was.

“I tried to avoid him but I think he clipped me coming back on the circuit, he clipped my rear right and that spun me around. From there I came back on without being able to see anyone coming from my right so I tried to get back.

“I was on the middle of the circuit out of Turn 10 trying to get out of the way but I think something happened very similar to what happened with Seb.”

Vettel’s penalty, which also hands the German driver three penalty points while Stroll’s carried two penalty points, sees the Ferrari driver move to just three penalty points away from exceeding the limit and incurring a one race ban.