Sebastian Vettel has been given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, after an incident involving himself and Carlos Sainz in qualifying.

The Ferrari driver was initially set to start third behind the two Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring, but will now do so from sixth, signalling a big blow to his chances of victory and trying to close the 14-point deficit to Lewis Hamilton in the championship.

It is the second weekend in a row that Vettel has found himself in hot water after being penalised for contact with Valtteri Bottas at last weekend's French Grand Prix, although some questioned if the five seconds he was given was sufficient.

This time it was impeding Carlos Sainz at the start of a flying lap in Q2 that the German was found guilty of, giving his side of the story after the session was over.

“I passed him on my fast lap in Turns 7/8, and then I was looking down in the main straight and didn’t see him,” said Vettel.

“I was turning into Turn 1 and thinking he must be there somewhere but as it turned out he was trying to go for a fast lap but I couldn’t see him.

“I wasn’t told over the radio so I can only apologise to him. There was no intention, I was looking with my head down the straight.

“It’s impossible to see, I wasn’t told anything, normally I get told very well. I can only apologise and fortunately, it didn’t make a difference for him.”

Indeed, the Renault driver would make Q3, finishing ninth, and often if there are no lasting repercussions the stewards do offer leniency, not in this case, however.

"It is the belief of the stewards that notwithstanding the absence of a radio call, the driver of car five (Vettel), being aware of the issue of rear vision with his mirrors, should not have been so slow and on the racing line, during a slowdown lap in qualification," their explanation read.

"Having reviewed all alleged impeding incidents since the beginning of 2016, the penalty of a drop of three grid positions is consistent with all other similar incidents."

After being initially angry with Vettel in the aftermath of the incident, which saw Sainz have to take to the run-off area, the 22-year-old was far less concerned following the session.

"I don't want to put too much blame on Sebastian," he insisted. "It has happened to me before, that your engineer doesn't tell you that there is one car is just starting a lap and you simply don't look in the mirrors.

"I've got a penalty before for this, I don't know how the stewards will react [this time].

"To be honest, I'm not too bothered if Sebastian gets it, I will understand if he doesn't also because it's tough luck on him that he wasn't told I was coming. But it did cost me a front wing."

As it is Vettel has got the penalty, promoting his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean up a place, and leaves the 30-year-old facing a tough battle to again minimise the pain to his championship chances.