Sebastian Vettel insists Ferrari's underperformance has not had an influence on his driving style after he was criticised by compatriot Nico Rosberg following their collision at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion attacked down the inside of Max Verstappen at the first turn and ended up hitting standings leader Rosberg, whose Mercedes was spun around.

Rosberg, who described his compatriot as "out of control", recovered to finish third, while the incident ended Vettel's race and landed him a three-place grid penalty for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

But Vettel defended himself, saying: "I'm a bit surprised you say you've never seen me like this.

"I've attacked quite a lot of cars in all the starts that I did in my life into turn one and most of the time got away with it.

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

"I went to the inside and obviously was able to go side-by-side with Max.

"As it turned out, I was probably a little bit too late in comparison to the first two cars, but I made the corner, it's not a problem.

"I'm not shooting straight like crazy, so of course it is a risk and in that case it didn't get rewarded.

"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, but sometimes these things happen."

Asked if Ferrari's underwhelming season had forced him to drive more aggressively, Vettel added: "Well I see where you might come from.

"I don't think there is so much to analyse, or so much to go through, and other than that you try to squeeze everything you can from the car at any time.

"Sometimes you find yourself overdriving.

"I mean it's not particularly this year, last year or the year before or whatever.

"You obviously try to achieve the best, sometimes you push too hard.

"It's normal, it's human and sometimes you don't push enough, so it's about finding the sweet spot in the middle."

"You obviously try to achieve the best, sometimes you push too hard.

"It's normal, it's human and sometimes you don't push enough, so it's about finding the sweet spot in the middle."