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Drivers sing different tyre songs

MONTREAL, Canada - Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg have offered entirely different views on the Formula 1 tyre-testing row that on Wednesday (June 5) led to Mercedes being called before an International Motoring Federation tribunal.

Defending triple World champion Vettel, whose Red Bull team lodged a protest, with Ferrari, against Mercedes' alleged breach of the sporting rules, said that team gained an unfair advantage by testing the Pirelli tyres in-season after May's 2013 Spanish F1 GP.

UPPER HAND

Vettel told the newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung: "I see it as a critical issue. Each test kilometre is an advantage and Mercedes had the opportunity to test tyres that we will probably race at Silverstone.

"I think this is an advantage over all the other teams."

Fellow German Rosberg, winner of the 2013 Monaco GP and chasing a fourth consecutive pole position in this weekend's Canadian GP, disagreed - pointing out that there was no gain for Mercedes because Pirelli had full control of the running at the test where both he and team mate Lewis Hamilton did the driving.

"We have no say whatsoever - they (Pirelli) say 'you are doing that, that, that and that' and the engineers that they have run our programme," he told Sky Sports. "It is not for us to learn anything or to decide on anything that we do."

Vettel also scoffed at Pirelli's decision to test proposed changes to the tyre design this weekend in Canada because of a lack of support in the pits lane.

"The tread completely falls off," he said. "This is a safety risk for all of us. That we won't have these (revised) tyres for the race on a fast track like Canada is, for me, inexplicable."

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2013 Canadian GP weekend.
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