The Ferrari driver made contact with Nico Rosberg at Turn 1 of the Sepang race, sending the German into a spin and forcing Max Verstappen to take evasive action, which cost the Red Bull driver several positions.

Verstappen had hit out at Vettel, saying his move was "ridiculous" and "crazy".

The German was handed a three-place grid penalty for this weekend's Japanese GP.

Facing the media on Thursday, Vettel admitted he was surprised when it was suggested he was driving too aggressively.

"I'm a bit surprised to [hear you] say you've never seen me like this," he said. "I think I've attacked a lot of cars in all the starts I've done in my life into Turn 1, and most of the time I got away with it.

"Sometimes I didn't and I guess last week was one of those occasions where it just didn't work."

When asked if he was having to overdrive to make up for Ferrari's weaknesses, he said: "No. I see where you might come from. I explained already what happened last week, I don't think there's so much to analyse.

"You try to squeeze out everything from the car you can. Sometimes you find yourself overdriving, you always try to achieve the best and sometimes you push too hard – it's normal, it's human. Sometimes you don't push enough, so it's about finding the sweet spot in the middle."

Vettel, who called Rosberg to apologise for the accident, insisted he would have made the corner without problems had he not hit the Mercedes.

"I went up the inside and went side by side with Max," he explained. "As it turned out, it was probably a bit too late in comparison to the first two cars, but I made the corner, it's not a problem.

"I was not shooting straight like crazy. Of course it was a bit of a risk that I took, and in that case it didn't get rewarded.

"For sure it was quite bad for Nico because he had nothing to do with it, I phoned him up straight after and explained to him my point of view. Sometimes these things happen."