Sebastian Vettel was second in the Formula 1 Spanish Grand prix but he was not very happy with that classification. The Ferrari driver lost time behind Valtteri Bottas and subsequently lost to his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
“My start was good, I saw Lewis struggle with wheelspin, and kept looking in mirror to see if anybody else had a better start”, Vettel commented afterwards. “The first stint went ok, then we had to pit, otherwise they might have got us with an undercut. My second stint was also pretty good: I managed to get close to Valtteri who was all over the place with his tyres. He blocked me, in the end I managed to get past, but by then I had lost an awful lot of time.”
“Then in the last stint we did everything we could, the car was good, it was close with Lewis. I am happy when we have the chance to race the Mercedes cars. We can be very happy but not entirely happy. The most important thing, though, is that we were in the fight; the team is in great form, we need to improve because we want to be ahead of them.”
Sebastian Vettel: “The most important thing is that we were in the fight”
Maurizio Arrivabene was also sorry for the end result but praised the team and car.
“We leave Spain knowing that we can count on a car that is solid and very quick”, Ferrari’s team principal said. “Seb’s race was very good from the start, and he was able to lead for many laps. In the last stint, despite being on Medium tires, he held off Hamilton until he had to give way to his main rival, who could take the best of DRS and Soft compound. More time was lost behind Bottas. And also because of the Virtual Safety Car, which ended just when we had to pit to cover Hamilton’s move.”
“Kimi Raikkonen’s race did not last long, as he was rammed at the first corner. That’s racing. And we must keep our concentration and humility, as we are aware that there is still a lot of work to do and so much to improve. The championship is still a long way and we are already focusing on the next race at Monaco.”
What a move ?#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/3EDzJwion9
— Formula 1 (@F1) 14 May 2017
