Lauda calls for more serious penalty for Vettel

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda believes that Sebastian Vettel's 5-second penalty for crashing into Valtteri Bottas at the start of the French Grand Prix wasn't enough. The Ferrari driver finished in fifth, ahead of Bottas even after serving his penalty.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Lauda suggested that the 5-second penalty Vettel received for the incident wasn't enough of a punishment for the mistake.

"I think we could have done, and why Vettel only gets five seconds for this enormous mistake I don't really understand. It is too little.

"There is more time they can give them. That is what I mean. Five seconds is nothing. He destroyed the whole race for himself and Bottas."

Race winner Lewis Hamilton also believed that his championship rival had gotten off lightly for the incident.

I've not seen it in detail but I saw something played back there,"

"For me, I'm disappointed because we had a chance to get a one-two finish. That's the ultimate goal within the team and Valtteri had done a solid job this weekend, as he has all year.

"We all went into Turn 1 as hard as we could. When someone destroys your race and then gets a tap on the hand, pretty much… they shouldn't be able to come back and finish ahead."