Sebastian Vettel doesn’t understand why Q3 was allowed to start in heavy rain just minutes before Lando Norris’ huge crash at Eau Rouge.
Norris lost his McLaren climbing Eau Rouge before suffering a high-speed impact into the barriers, causing the session to be red-flagged.
The Briton was able to walk away from the incident, but is undergoing a precautionary x-ray on his left elbow in hospital.
Vettel had radioed moments earlier that conditions were too dangerous and called for a red flag, venting his anger when informed of Norris’ accident.
As the first driver on the scene, Vettel pulled alongside Norris to check he was okay before heading back to the pits, and is understood to have discussed the incident with Formula 1 race director Michael Masi after the session.
“I think Michael is not proud of what happened either,” Vettel said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“It’s always easy to play Captain Hindsight. But I think we need to find a way that we listen more to the information that we have.
“Inside the garage, it’s very limited, because it’s like looking out of the window. But three kilometres that way, I have no clue what is going on.
“When I went down to Eau Rouge and came up the hill, it was a lot of water and I was calling for a red flag. I think the truth is, the session should not have started at all.
“There’s plenty of things we could have done better. I think it’s better to be safe one time too many than one time too little. It’s good that nothing happened, that’s the main news, but it could have been a different outcome for Lando, and I’m not sure there’s anything he could have done.”
It marked the second high-speed crash at Eau Rouge after a multi-car pile-up in Friday’s W Series qualifying session.
While Spa is planning for greater safety measures at the Eau Rouge/Raidillon complex in a circuit revamp next year, it has called into question if the corner itself needs changing.
Vettel felt it was important that lessons were taken to avoid a repeat instance in the future.
“The trouble is, of course we are in control, and you can always say well if you feel unsafe, box,” Vettel said.
“But it’s sort of a weird situation because everybody is in the same position, and you don’t want to get kicked out, you want to progress. So that decision shouldn’t be really and entirely up to us.
“We delayed the session in the beginning when there was less water, so I don’t entirely understand why we did not just not start the session.
“As I said, it’s always easy afterwards, but the main thing is it doesn’t happen again.”
Vettel went on to qualify a season-best of fifth, but was left a rue an error that felt cost him a higher grid slot.
“I went wide in Turn 8 and actually off the track, so I think Daniel [Ricciardo] was no problem to get him, and we should have been maybe a little bit higher up,” Vettel said.
“So I’m very happy for George [Russell], but I think that’s maybe where we could have been as well, a little more in the mix.
“But I think it’s a great result for us, and I’m happy to start the race in a decent position.”
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