'It would be wrong to race in the country' - Sebastian Vettel threatens Russian Grand Prix boycott

• News erupted worldwide of Russia invading Ukraine on Thursday morning.• Formula One has not yet cancelled the 2022 Russian Grand Prix.• Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel has already decided his stance should the race go ahead.• For more motoring stories, go to Wheels24. 

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel said he would boycott the Russian Grand Prix.

Formula One bosses are under increasing pressure to cancel the race – scheduled to take place on 25 September – after Russian president Vladimir Putin declared an invasion on neighbouring Ukraine.

UEFA is understood to be drawing up contingency plans over where to host the Champions League final, with the showpiece due to take place in St Petersburg on 28 May.

But F1 has so far refused to scrap the round in Sochi. The grid's major players will stage a crisis summit on Thursday night (24 February).

Vettel, one of the grid's leading figures and director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, said: "My own opinion is that I should not go, and I will not go.

"I woke up to this morning's news, and it is horrible to see what is happening.

"I am sorry for the innocent people that are losing their lives; they are getting killed for stupid reasons. It is a very strange and mad leadership.

"I am shocked and sad to see what is going on. I am sure the drivers will talk about it, so we will see going forward, but I think my decision is already made. It would be wrong to race in the country."

World champion Max Verstappen added: "When a country is at war, it's not right to race there."

The race at Sochi's Olympic Park, added to the calendar in 2014 after former supremo Bernie Ecclestone struck a lucrative deal with Putin, is due to move to Igora Drive, 64km north of St Petersburg, from