Sebastian Vettel was delighted to have limited Fernando Alonso’s points gain to three despite starting from the pitlane in Abu Dhabi. The defending champion stormed through the field to finish third, right behind Alonso, although his race wasn’t short on incident.
“It was a good race for us today, a big chance for Ferrari and Fernando, but we didn’t allow it. I enjoyed it a lot today, more than anything. I damaged the front wing pretty early with Bruno, which was not ideal, but we were able to carry on and not lose too much. Then, during the safety car, maybe I didn’t pay enough attention. Daniel was slowing down, just as I was warming the tyres and I got surprised. I had to move to the right and hit the DRS board, which damaged the front wing. It was the worst time to have to pit from P13 and start again at the back of the field, then I had to do it all over again, passing everyone from the back. In the end, to finish third on the podium is just fantastic.”
Red Bull teammate Mark Webber endured a miserable evening though which began with a poor start before no fewer than three collisions later on, the last of which ended his race after being caught up in the incident between Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean.
“Nothing really worked out for us today. I think we were strong, but we never got free air and it’s difficult here with traffic; we saw quite a few incidents where people were trying to pass. Ultimately, in the incident that ended my race, I tried to go down the inside when the cars ahead made contact, I thought there was an opportunity, but then Grosjean made contact with my car and that was the end for us. Whatever we tried today, it just wasn’t working out.”
