Sebastian Vettel was unfortunate to lose a near-certain podium finish in Austria after the German driver encountered an issue during his sole pit stop on Sunday.
The Scuderia Ferrari was on course to finish third at the Red Bull Ring, but fell behind the Williams of Felipe Massa as a result of his pit stop problem, but refused to lay the blame on anyone for what happened
“The issue during the pit-stop is something that can happen: I had a problem, but generally the guys are the quickest on the pit lane so there’s nobody to blame,” said Vettel.
“We are a team and when you push to the limit these things can occur. I would have preferred to get the trophy for third place of course, but we’ll come back next year with the same objective.”
Vettel felt he had a better car in Austria than he has had in recent races, and hopes to show its true pace when Formula 1 reconvenes in Silverstone in two weeks time.
“The car was very good, I think we made another step ahead and we had a great pace,” said Vettel. “This is a very short lap so there’s not so much to create, but in the next races there are more high speed corners and we can better show that we’re a bit closer even if today’s result doesn’t show so well.
“In the last part of the race I’ve tried to stay close to Felipe, but he was very quick on the straights. Today was a bit disappointing because we’ve lost the podium, but I’m sure tomorrow it will be better and we’ll focus on the next race: the team in Maranello is very committed to this and they’re all working hard.”
