Sebastian Vettel says he “couldn’t avoid” crashing into the back of Alpine's Esteban Ocon in the seasoꦚn-opening Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

While running well outside of the top ten, Vettel drove into the back of Ocon on 💖t🏅he run down to Turn 1.

The German was handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty 🦄points on his superlicence for the incid𒅌ent.

The four-time world champion complai🦄ned Ocon had moved under braking,💮 although the stewards’ verdict disagreed with this view.

The stewards’ verdict read: "The Stewards reviewe🎃d multiple a♐ngles of video evidence and telemetry and determined that Car 5 was wholly to blame for the contact at Turn 1."

Reflecting on the incident wi💝th Ocon, Vettel felt he had nowher𒀰e to go.

“I was sure he was leaving 🐓me space on the lꦬeft but then he crossed back and as soon as I was behind him I locked up and couldn’t avoid hitting him,” Vettel said.

Vettel’s debut for Aston Martin has been nothing short of a nightmare after he picked up a five-place gridღ penalty be🍒fore the race for failing to slow down for yellow flags in qualifying.

In a bid to turn his weekend around, Aston Martin put the German on a one-stop strategy, but he never looked like he was going to br꧙eak into the points-paying positions in Bahrain.

"It's been a tricky race, we tried the o🙈ne stop, we had to ꧟try something different," Vettel added.

"Initially it looked like it wasn't that bad but first stint but towards the end I was struggling quite a bit with tyres so I don't think we c𝐆ould have realistically scored points."

Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll f𒁏inished tenth, scoring one point.