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

While running well outside of th🍸e top ten, Vettel drove into the back of Ocon on the run down to Turn 1.

The German was handed a 10-second time penalty and two penalty poinꦐts on his superlicenc🦋e for the incident.

The four-time world champion complained Ocon had moved ▨under braking, although the stewards’ ♍verdict disagreed with this view.

The stewards’ verdict read: "The Stewards reviewed multiple angles of video evidence ಞand telemetry and determined that Car 5 was wholly to blame for the contact at Turn 1."

Reflecting o♑n the incident with Oꦑcon, Vettel felt he had nowhere to go.

“I was sure he was leaving me space on the left 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 grid penalty before the race for failing to s🐼low 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 break into the points-paying positions in Bahrain.

"It's been a tricky race, we tried t🔯he one stop, we had to try something different," Vette𝄹l 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 th♎ink we could have realist🌠ically scored points."

Aston Martin⭕ teamma🍷te Lance Stroll finished tenth, scoring one point.