Top Stories of 2017, #10: Vettel loses his cool in Baku

Now that a fair bit of time has passed and Sebastian Vettel himself has repeatedly expressed regret over his Azerbaijan GP sideswipe against Lewis Hamilton, it would be easy to forget just how distinctly unrepentant he was during (and right after) the race itself.

“When did I do dangerous driving then? Can you give me an explanation - when I did dangerous driving?”

As if he didn't know. As if, in response to that radio message, he could've expected his Ferrari team to name some other indiscretion and not the extremely obvious instance of bumper cars involving his championship rival.

No, this was almost certainly a message of defiance meant for race direction and the FIA stewards, and in that context a motorsport equivalent of a football player making a “got the ball, ref” gesture after a particularly reckless tackle.

It was never going to work. Unlike referees in most football leagues, the FIA stewards get to review video replays before passing their judgment – and while their decisions are often controversial still, this particular incident looked fairly open-and-shut. Wasn't it?

The two championship frontrunners clashed during the second safety car start, just a third of the way into the event – although by that point the race had already been more eventful than the inaugural Baku GP from the year before.

The long main straight meant a safety car restart offered ample opportunity to either win big or lose big – and while Vettel couldn't keep up with Hamilton the first time around, debris soon gave him another chance to take the fight to the race-leading Brit.

Eager to maximise the opportunity, Vettel tried to follow Hamilton at speed in anticipation of the restart, only to run into the back of the Mercedes.

“We know the leader dictates the pace but we were exiting the corner," Vettel would say after the race.

"He was accelerating then he braked so much that I was braking as soon as I saw, but I couldn't stop in time and ran into the back of him. I just think that wasn't necessary.”

Feeling he had been wronged (although Hamilton would be exonerated by data in post-race investigations), Vettel retaliated with an unnecessary move of his own, driving alongside Hamilton and barging into the side of him as he gesticulated angrily.

Of course, describing the action as a “moment of madness” or “road rage” makes the accident sound worse than it looked.

Vettel had broken a cardinal rule and deliberately used his car as a weapon, but his outburst looked relatively tame on the TV screens - a mild swerve at low speed causing a wheel-banging contact that left no lasting damage (and did not, as some had originally suspected, contribute to Hamilton's subsequent headrest problem).

This was probably why Jacques Villeneuve could dismiss it as no big deal, and why Jenson Button would subsequently urge F1 to “move on” from the episode, deeming Vettel's in-race penalty sufficient.

Despite launching a separate post-race investigation into the clash, the FIA soon heeded the advice. Citing Vettel's commitment “to devote personal time to educational activities across a variety of FIA championships and events”, a “personal apology” and a “pledge to make that apology public” (which Vettel swiftly delivered on), the governing body declared the matter closed.

It's easy to imagine how this could've been a decisive moment in the season. Vettel had avoided a crucial points loss in Baku, and should have inadvertently landed a big psychological blow to Hamilton, who very clearly felt wronged.

The German's commitments and apologies were naturally of little consolation to his rival, especially against the backdrop of Hamilton having had to follow Vettel across the line in Baku, the Ferrari man's penalty more than negated by the headrest coming loose on the Brit's Mercedes W08.

Instead, Baku was a flashpoint, its effects on the points standings rendered completely meaningless by Hamilton's late-season charge and the self-destruction of Vettel and Ferrari's title challenge.

Formula 1 can count its lucky stars that the incident, on the surface at least, proved largely inconsequential to the outcome of the 2017 title race. The question now is whether it's a precedent the sport can be happy with - and whether it will have an impact on future Formula 1 campaigns.

Click here to see the list of top 20 stories so far.