Sebastian Vettel does not think he sped in the pitlane last Sunday in Singapore. The Red Bull driver's already slight championship chances diminished yet further under the Singapore floodlights, where he received a drive-through penalty for breaching the pitlane speed limit by 1.4kmh.
Team officials unofficially protested the infringement after the race, showing the stewards and race director Charlie Whiting telemetry that did not back up the speeding.
Vettel told the German news agency SID on Thursday that he believes there was a "measuring error" by the FIA.
"I hope the same thing doesn't happy to anyone else in the future," he said. "The speed limit should be independent of the track on which you're driving."
He is referring to the fact that pitlane speed is not measured by laser or radar, but rather by measuring the time it takes cars to travel through various fixed segments.
"We have data from our car that shows clearly that we didn't exceed the speed limit," said Vettel, whose Renault powered car is limited electronically in the pitlane to 99.5kmh.
"Drivers take different lines in the pitlane. In the (Singapore) pit entry there was a line which you could drive over. Some did it a little, others a little bit more, like myself. It was completely legal," he explained.
Cutting the pitlane curve, Vettel believes, had the result of making it appear he went too fast through one of the timed segments.
Vettel Protesting Speeding Penalty
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