The performance of Ferrari in the free practice sessions, had invited the optimism in the Scuderia for qualifying and to be able to plant face to Mercedes, even though Red Bull seem to have found the way to be quick in the Free 3. And up to Q3, everything was on wheels, both cars going to the final round in a comfortable way, such that Sebastian Vettel even asked the team if he could stop for a moment to go to the bathroom.
In the last round, however, everything went wrong suddenly. the pace of The Ferrari disappeared suddenly, and not only were they far from Mercedes and Red Bull, if not for the Force India Nico Hülkenberg achieved a time better than both cars. A situation markedly disappointing for Vettel, who shall take the output from the seventh place after being beaten again by his teammate Kimi Räikkönen in the classification.
Vettel, however, had had a little more prominence in the Q2 apart from his speed and his communication radio. Warming up tires in the area of the stadium to start your turn, obstructed slightly on the way to Lewis Hamilton, which had been in his lap. The british managed to pass him and set the fastest time of the session, but the German pilot acknowledged before the media that she had not noticed his presence, and that he would accept willingly a penalty if this were the case: “we Will block any, but I had no idea that was coming. I was warned too late. Was my error, so if I penalize, forward. Nothing I can do now”.
In terms of its classification, the four-time champion German put the spotlight on the performance of the superblando, which, according to him, offered no improvement of performance compared to the soft, and ruled out that the loss of speed should be a problem with the car:
“Simply, we were not fast enough. I am very disappointed, because the car is fast. Our Q2 had been a walk in the park with the soft, I had a much better feeling, but with the superblandos had nothing. Yesterday we gained a lot with the superblandos, and today we have not won anything. We tried a couple of things, but in qualifying you can’t correct it all. All improved with the superblandos, more or less half a second, less us. The car is quick, and will start in a site that does not belong to. Starting so far back is not makes our career easier, but I think we still have options”.
Räikkönen, weighed down by a problem in the engine
Right in front of him, will leave a Kimi Räikkönen whose last session was not much better. A problem in his power unit when he was preparing to perform his last lap prevented him from improving his time, that was still enough to beat Vettel. The Finnish regretted not having been able to take advantage of the game superblandos they had reserved for the occasion, since there was scope of improvement in his first attempt in Q3
“Had a strange feeling on the last attempt, we had some power problems. Had No speed in the straight and couldn’t even try to go faster. Obviously it is not ideal, we could have used the second set of superblandos. The first round was good, the car went best of what I noticed throughout the weekend. The second one was a bit more impatient, the soft tyre worked well but I lost a bit in the last curves”.
“The first attempt in Q3 was good, but there were some places where we should have won a long time. I think we had a lot of speed, but we were not able to use it at the end. is Not really important for me to start sixth or seventh. If we were before… right Now, I don’t think that benefits you nothing. The little problem we have had has cost us a few positions”.
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