Chinese Grand Prix 2016: Sebastian Vettel blames 'madman' Daniil Kvyat for first corner crash - but who is to blame?

Vettel suffered a damaged front wing after he hit Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen

Sebastian Vettel speaks with Daniil Kvyat on the podium after the Chinese Grand Prix (Getty)

The Chinese Grand Prix provided another entertaining Sunday to suggest that Formula One may not be in as much trouble as was thought at the start of the season, with three action-packed races getting the 2016 championship off to a strong start.

One thing Shanghai was able to boast that neither Australia nor Bahrain could though was action off the track, as Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat clashed in the drivers’ waiting room and on the podium about the Red Bull driver’s first lap move on the Ferrari that caused Vettel to veer left and hit his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Both were bumped down the order with Vettel suffering damage to his front wing and Raikkonen needing to return to the pits, and Vettel was quick to apologise on the team radio. However, the German also laid the blame firmly at the feet of Kvyat, and said the Russian came up the inside of the long turn one like “a madman”.

With Kvyat going on to finish third behind Vettel and race winner Nico Rosberg, the two met in the drivers’ waiting room, and after enjoying a joke with Rosberg Vettel turned on Kvyat and gave him a piece of his mind.

"What happened at the start?" asked a smiling Kvyat, perhaps knowing what he was getting himself in to.

"You - asking what happened at the start?! If I don't go left, you crash into us and we all three go out - you are like a torpedo,” answered Vettel, before adding that the 21-year-old needed to “learn” how to overtake safely.

Stoking the flames further, Kvyat added: "That's racing. We didn't crash."

A now riled Vettel snapped back: "You didn't. You were lucky this time."

Clearly unmoved by Vettel’s protestations, Kvyat brushed off the argument and said "I'm on the podium; you're on the podium” before adding during the podium ceremony itself: "You see the gap, you go for it on the inside. You see one car, it is hard to see both. It was a risky move - I agree with Seb - but you have to take risks and I am on the podium."

So who was to blame?

At the time of first viewing, it appeared very much to be a racing incident. 22 cars battling for the same piece of road often ends in collisions and accidental movements that cause other drivers to take evasive action. The race stewards, led this weekend by former world champion Alan Jones, must have agreed, as they didn’t investigate the incident between Kvyat, Vettel and Raikkonen, let alone take any action against one of the trio.

One the replays were run, the only man that could possibly be at fault would be Vettel. Kvyat was right to lunge to the inside of the corner given both Raikkonen and Vettel had carried too much speed into the first turn and drifted wide. Raikkonen locks up his inside wheel, and Vettel appears to follow him towards the outside of the turn.

Kvyat, seeing the gap and hugging the inside kerb, gets under Vettel just as the Ferrari turns back in towards the corner in a bid to avoid Raikkonen, and it’s possible to argue that Vettel should have braked and conceded the corner if there are to be any criticisms. Kvyat carries a lot of speed through the corner, but it’s not until after he’s pushed Vettel out that he drifts off the inside line and in fact nearly compromises his own race by hitting the out-of-control Raikkonen.

Kvyat is clearly alongside Vettel and actually passes him just as he comes into view, and had it been a one-on-one pass later in the race, no questions would have been asked of the move from the Red Bull driver.

However, the footage does add weight to the argument that this was merely a racing incident that can happen at the start of any race, given there was no contact between Vettel and Kvyat and the action unfolded within milliseconds, such is the speed carried into turn one at Shanghai.

So who do you think was at fault?