It was one of those truly iconic F1 moments.

As Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel cooled down in the ante-room before heading out on to the Sepang podium, the clearly angry Australian slammed his water bottle on to the table.

"Multi-21, Seb," he said, "multi-21".

As Vettel took a long, hard swig from his water bottle, Adrian Newey looked at the floor, clearly wishing he was anywhere else.

During the race, as he battled with his Red Bull teammate, in a series of radio messages Vettel had been told "Multi-21" and then, as he closed in on the Australian "you need to give him the space, hold position", at which point the German made his move.

"This is silly, Seb," came the warning from Christian Horner as the two went side-by-side into turn 1, "yep, that's good team work," said Webber as Vettel headed off into the distance. "He was told, he was told," came the response.

"Good job Sebastian," the German was told as he took the flag, "looks like you wanted it badly enough, still there will be some explaining to do".

Indeed there was. While some of the previous cracks in the relationship had been papered over, not least with the use of an infamous photo-shoot, this was a step too far and Webber subsequently left F1 for WEC... his place to be taken by another Australian who somewhat caught Vettel by surprise.

Talking to the official F1 website, team boss Christian Horner has shed further light on this infamous incident admitting that it was basically 'pay back' for Webber's actions in Brazil a few months earlier.

"It was very difficult for Mark to accept at the time that, and I think if he looked back at it now with perspective and honesty, Sebastian was just quicker," says Horner. "So therefore Mark would use whatever tool he could to try and get under his skin.

"As a team, we were just trying to play a straight bat, but every now and again, you'd get a missile coming in and the situation got tougher and tougher.

"It probably culminated at the end of 2012 when Sebastian was fighting Alonso for the championship and Mark squeezed him up against the pit wall at the start of the race in Brazil, in the championship decider, which ultimately resulted in him getting turned round by Bruno Senna. Sebastian was hugely angry about that.

"There was a hangover of that that led into Malaysia, literally two races later, split by four or five months. You had a situation where you have Mark in the car ahead, Sebastian on new tyres in the car behind. The tyres were pretty fragile, we're telling them hold position and Sebastian thought 'F*** you'."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/08/2018 7:34

"Vettel's main problems appear to be: an inability properly to evaluate situations, over-emotional\ego-driven responses to situations and a tendency to crack under pressure.
His decision-making is often poor, he makes dangerous moves which put him at unnecessary risk. These come off sometimes, but frequently don't. That's fine, but if that's your style, you have to accept your own culpability.
The comparison to Nico seems valid inasmuch as he often appears to be seeking "payback" rather than 'living to fight another day', as it were.

With the situation between Ricciardo & Verstappen history at RBR was repeating itself. The favoured driver being cosseted and rewarded, despite being only marginally faster than the "Number 2", and often performing worse after lights-out.."

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2. Posted by BillH, 11/08/2018 20:31

"To me this isn't so much about Red Bull (what were they going to do after all to Vettel, their main driver?) but more so about Vettel's, ego and in particular, not being able to let go, to hold grudges. Perhaps Vettel has matured since those times however if this is part of his underlying character, then this is likely to play out again at some point.
I don't think we see this often in Vettel because generally he is so good compared to his team mates."

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3. Posted by Brycevr, 11/08/2018 12:27

"So, now we have no doubt why Dan is bailing.
Red Bull will defend their current hero at and throw the other guy under the bus as it suits them.
I'd be out of there in a heartbeat if I was Danny Boy."

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4. Posted by Anthony, 11/08/2018 11:15

"Raising this now sounds like a tactic to divert attention from the fact that they have let Dan through their fingers and that he has chosen Renault, who RB have blamed for all their problems, over RB itself. The interesting question is whether it is simply Mr H who is very cross or whether others are cross with him! In any event I have a feeling that this is a good move for Dan and I wish him all the best."

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5. Posted by *TestaRossa*, 10/08/2018 20:52

"Wow Mark was not so innocent as i thought , i am happy he was not a wimp.
All world champions are MFs now and then even Nico "

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6. Posted by jcr, 10/08/2018 20:01

"Red Bulls true colours, Shit always comes to the top.
So badly hurt by Danis move , they will try anything to make their case.
It will break them if Renault raise to the game,
Dont forget, RB have won nothing without Renault.
To start raising this Historic Shit, to justify their preference for younger boys !!
Just goes to show how insecure they must be feeling:
Come on Dani !!!!"

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Horner reveals truth behind multi-21 row

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