"What a di**head. I mean seriously what a di**head!”: When Sebastian Vettel was furious at young Russian driver

In 2021, former Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel lashed out at former Haas F1 driver Nikita Mazepin after the Russian blocked him during the 2021 US GP qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas. The former four-time world champion was going to start the race from the back of the grid due to his power unit penalties but he looked competitive during the qualifying session.

However, Vettel encountered a slow-moving Haas of Mazepin in the middle of the road in the fast esses in sector 1 during the Q1 session, which left him enraged. Nikita Mazepin had seemingly developed a reputation for being a difficult driver on track in his sole year in the sport.

On his team radio, Sebastian Vettel called out the Russian driver and said:

"What a di**head. I mean seriously what a di**head!”

However, the incident did not hamper Vettel's prospects going into Q2 given the superior pace of the AMR21. As quoted by the team's official website, the 53-year-old was encouraged by the car's performance around COTA and reflected:

"Our qualifying pace was promising, and the car felt especially good in Q1. In Q2, I think I left some time on the table, but, with the grid penalty, the early exit made very little difference. We did what we needed to in terms of qualifying ahead of George [Russell] and Fernando [Alonso] who are also taking grid penalties, which means we will not start right at the back," Sebastian Vettel said.

After qualifying ahead of George Russell and Fernando Alonso, Vettel started the race in P18 and managed to finish 10th.

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Sebastian Vettel finished in the points at the 2021 US GP after starting from P18

Former four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel hailed the strategy of the Aston Martin team during the 2021 US Grand Prix as he managed to finish in the points after starting from the back of the grid.

As quoted by the team's official website, the German discussed a 'difficult' race at the Circuit of Americas and said:

"As we expected, it was a difficult race for everybody trying to manage the tires with the hot track temperatures. I was happy when everybody pitted quite early because we knew we would have a chance by running longer," Vettel said.

Saying that the strategy of switching to hard tires was the difference maker, the German added:

"It [the strategy] gave us fresher tires at the end when it mattered, so we could move up into the top 10. It was a good strategy by the team. We only scored one point today, and we had to fight hard. It was a good recovery after the grid penalty yesterday, and, when we were in clean air, the pace was good," he said.

His first year with the Aston Martin F1 team in 2021 was a mixed bag given that he finished P2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix early in the season, but could only manage 43 points in the end. Sebastian Vettel retired from the end of the sport in the following season with the British team and was replaced by Fernando Alonso.