The German found himself stranded on the side of the track at Turn 10 when his car lost power during the first free practice session on Friday afternoon.
When the session was over, he used a marshal's scooter to ride back to the pits, with his helmet balanced on top of his head, which caught the attention of the stewards.
Despite arguing that he had been given permission by the marshal to use the scooter, stewards deemed Vettel to have re-entered the circuit without permission and slapped him with a €5000 fine.
That didn't amuse the four-time world champion, who could not understand the penalty.
"Joke," he said when asked by Autosport what he made of the sanction. "What do you think?
"It would be good to know what happens to that money. I think we are still not aware what happened to the $50,000 that Max or Lewis or one of them had to pay for touching a rear wing."
Vettel copped another fine, this time €600, during Saturday's qualifying session for speeding in the pitlane as he raced to get out on track at the end of Q1.
He was clocked at 85.1 km/h, where he should have been at 80 km/h.
That added to another difficult day for Vettel and the Aston Martin team, which started with a crash on the exit of Turn 10 in final practice.
He was set to miss qualifying altogether, only for a reprieve to come in the form of a red flag sparked by team-mate Lance Stroll's bizarre clash with Nicholas Latifi.
That opened the door for the team to get Vettel's car ready, however his single lap was only good enough for 18th on the grid.
"I didn't know where the limit was to be honest," said Vettel of his sole Q1 lap.
"Today is really a day for the team. They did incredible, all of the girls and boys in the garage worked really hard to get both cars out, and it was a miracle we got one out, and then we had the red flag and the guys jumped from one side to the other and were trying their best to get me out, which worked.
"Obviously at the minute, where we are with pace, we're not going to jump to the front and create a miracle. We are not strong enough for that right now, but still it was a great team effort."
