Maurizio Arrivabene has rubbished Daniil Kvyat's claim that a sudden deceleration from Sebastian Vettel caused the Ferrari driver's race-ending crash in Russia.
Kvyat hit Vettel twice in the opening corners at the Sochi Autodrom, punting the Ferrari driver out of the race at Turn 3. After the race Kvyat apologised to Vettel but said he had not expected the Ferrari driver to slow down after the initial contact at Turn 2.
When told what Kvyat had said, the Ferrari boss replied: "Of course, he hit him! What does he have to do, fly?
He was then asked what the telemetry showed and said: "Mentioning the telemetry I think is not the right way to look at the situation. I understand to be intelligent but we have to be smart sometimes, if you look at the images it's quite clear. Sebastian said he touched him one time at the beginning and then the second time was quite hard. Of course, if you have a crash like this you slow down. That doesn't mean because you slow down that you have to hit him another time! We don't need the telemetry to understand that.
Arrivabene had not sided with Vettel after his angry rant at Kvyat following an incident at Turn 1 in China but said this time it is impossible not to blame the Red Bull driver.
"I promised to all of you since the first time I started working here to be transparent and honest. Last time, in China, I was not complaining about Kvyat. I said Kvyat had done his job. This time I can't find any reason for what's happened."
The incident prompted a colourful radio message from Vettel immediately afterwards and Arrivabene believes that highlighted the German's desire to win races.
"No, he was not happy at all, he was going ballistic but you understand. The rare situation where he took a DNF one time [Bahrain] and a second time with something that had nothing to do with him, this is the character of the guy. He's a four-time world champion and he wants to continue to win so it's understandable. Afterwards we talked and he was a bit more calm, but of course calm doesn't mean happy."