Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel said fourth was the best he could do for Ferrari in the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas while his teammate Kimi Raikkonen had fourth place turn into a DNF through no fault of his own.
On another disappointing day for the Italian team, who are without a win this year, Vettel was lucky to escape a first turn melee which he inadvertently caused, adding to a catalogue of first turn incidents that have haunted the German this season.
He recovered without being compromised, although the same cannot be said for a trio of drivers who collided in his wake.
Vettel said afterwards, “The start was not so good and into turn 1 I was quite lucky, given that somebody was hitting me, I think it was Nico Hülkenberg… Luckily nothing was broken so I could carry on.”
“I think we were better today than on Saturday and we were matching Red Bull for most of the race. It was a decent day, but a shame that we could not both finish. I think P4 was my maximum for today.”
Raikkonen failed to finish, forced into retirement after a pit-stop blunder that saw him pull up with a loose wheel and then roll backwards into the pit lane.
“We had some issues,” said Raikkonen, who was clearly livid after the incident which wrecked his race. The tyre was not on tight 100 percent. I don’t know why. It was attached somehow, but not properly.”
Raikkonen said he felt as if he had left the pits with a wheel-gun still attached to a wheel, “It was one of those weekends for us – and it is a pity because the car was pretty good. But I knew something was going on because I saw a lot of sparks and I had to slow down.”
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, summed up, “Obviously, we had hoped for a better result this weekend. Once again, though, we paid a heavy price for our qualifying position. In the race, our pace was definitely better than [qualifying], and we could have fought for a podium finish.
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