Johannesburg [South Africa], Oct.5 : World championship leader Nico Rosberg has revealed that Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel called him after the Malaysian Grand Prix to apologise for their collision at the first corner.

The Mercedes driver was spun round at Turn 1 by Ferrari driver Vettel, who was attempting to pass his team-mate Max Verstappen on the inside at the start.

Earlier, Vettel had indirectly blamed his team-mate Verstappen for the incident, but it seems that he has now changed his mind after being deemed that it was predominately his fault by the racing stewards.

"Sebastian just called me actually. He apologised, which is nice. It doesn't get me back the points that I lost, but it's still nice to hear that," Rosberg was quoted as saying by Sport24.

Rosberg said that he thought his race was over after being hit in the rear by his fellow German, but added that he was glad to fight his way back and finish the race at the third spot.

"Of course I spin turned it as quickly as possible and got going, and surprisingly the car was still okay. The thing is, it got a bit damaged but still more or less okay to drive it. I was really surprised. Then of course, full attack - that was all I could do. It was quite enjoyable at times to fight through the pack like that and pass left, right everywhere," he said.

While Vettel was handed a three-place grid penalty for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, Rosberg extended his gap over team-mate Lewis Hamilton in driver standings from eight to 23 points with five races remaining. (ANI)