Boos were wrong - Sebastian Vettel gave masterclass

Another race weekend, another win by Sebastian Vettel, another round of mindless booing from so-called motor-racing fans. I really cannot understand it. What is their motivation? Is it because Sebastian is winning so often? If so, I think they should instead applaud a driver at the peak of his game rather than pour scorn on him. Because, without wishing to get carried away, what we witnessed in Singapore at the weekend was quite exceptional.

There comes a point in the life of every sportsman, or artist, when he is in the zone. Last year we saw it with Fernando Alonso as he wrestled a Ferrari which was, let's face it, miles off the pace to a final-day shoot-out in Brazil. He was fast, focused and relentless. At the moment I think we are being treated to an absolute masterclass from Sebastian, and I say that without any Red Bull bias.

No, he is not two seconds quicker per lap than the likes of Fernando, Lewis Hamilton or even his own team-mate Mark Webber. Yes, he is driving a car which is the class of the field. But he is consistently extracting the most from it. For whatever reason, Mark is unable to do that consistently.

Sebastian is doing it every race weekend. He can lead from the front, and he can race from the back. He knows now when to risk a move, as he did around the outside of Fernando at Monza in 2011, and when to back off, as he did when he and Nico Rosberg headed into turn one on Sunday. But he showed he really can race by cutting back inside at the next turn, and going wheel to wheel before pulling away from the Mercedes. He is relentless. If it is about a crooked finger, then these fans need to take a look at themselves.

I do not much care for Rafael Nadal hitching his shorts up between each point in tennis matches but it does not give me the right to boo him. If it is about what happened in Malaysia, and the Red Bull team's coded 'Multi21' message (the instruction for Sebastian to hold station behind Mark, which Seb ignored), then I cannot fathom that either. Sebastian broke no Formula One rules in Sepang. Yes he went against an instruction from his team but that is an internal issue, not a breach of sporting regulations. Michael Schumacher broke rules in his career. He was deemed to have cheated by the sports governing body, the FIA, and was thrown out of the 1997 world championship.

I still would not have booed him as I had - and still have - huge respect for his achievements, but I could at least understand it more if he was booed. Sebastian showed in Malaysia that he was a real racer, who was not prepared to give someone a win who he felt did not deserve it. He ignored team orders, which plenty of other champions of the past have done. That ruthless streak is a common trait of champions. There is, of course, an argument that 'you pays your money, you have the right to boo'. I accept that, but personally I feel that Formula One is rather more at the gentleman end of sport compared to, say, WWF.

I thought Martin Brundle handled it all extremely well on the podium on Sunday, stopping the interviews for a moment to ask the crowd to show some respect. I think there is a bit of a pantomime element to it, but it is still uncalled for. I do not think we're quite at the stage we were with Damon Hill when he was receiving death threats at Hockenheim in 1995.

I was his team-mate at Williams at that time and I distinctly remember driving around in a car on the parade lap with him and ducking down as we entered the stadium section and some poppers went off. Sebastian seems to have accepted it - he believes he is there to do a job and he knows that if he does it well it will not please everyone - but that does not mean that we as fans should.