The Grand Prix of Belgium had been twisted somewhat since the Saturday for Ferrari, having been the two surpassed in ranking by the Max Verstappen, but a good start augured a good day at the Spa for the Prancing horse. A few seconds later, the reality hit hard in Maranello in The Source, erasing the stroke of a pen your choices podium and victory.
Both cars came in parallel to the first curve, but ended up colliding between themselves and with Verstappen, which tried to gain position from the inside of the curve. Both Ferrari’s suffered damage and his race was severely compromised. Both cars were able to regain ground and score points, although not enough to offset 18 Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel was the most damaged in the incident of the output, trompeando and having to make a long pit stop. The decision not to change tires during the Safety Car returned to the top 10 with the red flag, and the four-time champion had the pace enough to finish the race in sixth position.
The German pilot commented his point of view on the accident of the output, of the which he blamed Max Verstappen, and regretted that the damages you prevent to have a better race pace:
“The pace today was good. Both cars are damaged is not ideal, and we could not see our true pace, but it was strong enough to recover. In a normal race, we had the pace to finish second and third. I’ve had a output bright. He was in the second, and half a car ahead, so that I could dictate the way. I could barely see Kimi, I was in my blind spot, with Max even more to the right and out of my field of vision. I don’t think that what Max was trying to do had worked. There was no way that he would have been able to take that corner without crashing“.
“to Recover two positions in a curve tirándote inside a maneuver is very risky, do not let Kimi be moved towards the inside, that prevented the two places the curve in the normal way. In perspective, this would have left more space on the inside, but you want to take the curve and try to compete, and di space to Kimi, but not to three cars. Max had a bad start, it was falling back. We have seen these past two years that, if you jump far to the inside, basically you are going straight. The cars in front have priority.”
Their disputes with Verstappen did not end there, if not later, both pilots returned to be on track, starring in a couple of tense moments in the straight of Kemmel while the German tried to overtake him. Vettel does not believe that the matter is to become a controversy, but believes that Verstappen should think about your way of defending under braking:
“at The end, did not make the decision more intelligent, because I lost a lot of time and he lost three or four seconds fighting with me. He was clearly faster, and I gave him anyway in the next lap. I think that criticizing is fine, but it would be a mistake to do a history of this. I get along well with him, I like it, it is aggressive and I think that is his strong point, but do not think certain maneuvers, especially braking, are correct, and it is something that you have to understand“.
“Never has happened to me with any other pilot”
In the case of Kimi Räikkönen, the incident with Verstappen practically monopolized his career. Both faces were back in the race, and the finn was criticized harshly by the radio the defensive moves of the Red Bull, coming to say that he wanted to “kick me out of track”. Kimi culminated finally his comeback in the points with a ninth position.
After the race, Räikkönen said that the defense of Verstappen was something unheard of for him, and that had the fortune of dodging a serious accident:
“Sebastian could not see that there was another car on the inside. Expected me to spinning, but I couldn’t, so I found myself caught in the middle without having where to go. Then there was an uphill battle: the floor of my car was a little damaged, but we managed to recover some positions. it Is difficult to say where we would have been without that contact at the beginning, the car was good all weekend. It is not the result we were looking for, but that’s racing sometimes.”
“I seem to be well the fights clean and tight but, in my opinion, what happened at Eau Rouge with Verstappen was not correct. I was going at full speed, and had to get up before Les Combes because he came right in front of me when I tried to overtake him. Never happened to me with any other pilot, and if I had not braking strong, we would have had a big accident. There is something in this that is not correct, but doesn’t seem to matter“.
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