Sebastian Vettel had to take second place in the Monaco Grand prix. After the race, the Ferrari driver said that he did not know why he lost pace at the end of the race.
“I was trying to get closer to the car in front and do something, but obviously if you get closer it doesn’t help with your tires. In some corners, you don’t really need power and [Daniel] Ricciardo was quicker than us. He was always able to open the gap and I was never really there. He could keep his pace and I think that perhaps it could have been worse for us if he hadn’t had some issues”, Vettel commented.
“Unfortunately, there weren’t many chances to do something different. I think it was tricky for us to make the tires work the right way. Then, when the Virtual Safety Car came on, a McLaren was just exiting the box and took a lot of time, while I was struggling with tire warm-up, and I think that was the biggest issue that cost me quite a few seconds. It took to me one and a half lap to get the rhythm back, but by then it was too late. However, there are so many races to go and I believe we need to understand our problems. We have a good car, but we can make it better.”
Vettel: It was tricky for us to make the tires work the right way
His teammate Kimi Raikkonen said nothing really happened for him in the race.
“To be honest, it was a pretty boring one. We know that on this track, once everybody has stopped, whoever is in the front dictates the speed and no matter if he goes four second slower on a lap, there’s no way to pass unless somebody makes a big mistake or runs out of tires. We end up following each other through the whole race”, the Finn said.
“I had no problem managing my tires. In fact they were pretty good. I only had some graining with the first set, but apart from that they were ok. I was never worried about [Valtteri] Bottas behind me, we had the speed and I could easily close up with the car in front, but there was no way to pass him. We were all the time doing our best, but couldn’t use our pace. Obviously we cannot be happy with fourth position, but as always, we try to learn from every race.”
Sneaky, Sebastian Vettel
*Very* sneaky ??#MonacoGP #F1 ?? pic.twitter.com/5jN2vvLU9X
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 28, 2018
