Maurizio Arrivabene felt the Azerbaijan Grand Prix result was defined by the intervention of the safety on Sunday, with Sebastian Vettel ending up finishing off the podium despite appearing to have the race under control, but the Scuderia Ferrari team principal was pleased to see the SF71-H being competitive throughout the weekend at the Baku Street Circuit.
Vettel had more than an eleven second advantage over Lewis Hamilton when the safety car was deployed for the second time of the afternoon, caused by the two Aston Martin Red Bull Racing drivers collided into turn one.
Unfortunately, Valtteri Bottas was able to get a free pit stop to take over the lead of the race and Vettel then fell off the podium after locking up his tyres attacking the Finn at the restart, leaving Hamilton to assume the lead of the Drivers’ Championship as a result.
The second Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen was able to recover to second place after initially running sixth, himself taking advantage of the same safety car, with Arrivabene feeling the pace showed throughout the weekend was both strong and competitive, something they can take confidence to the Spanish Grand Prix with.
“As we had already seen yesterday [Saturday], our car proved to be very competitive and capable of doing well on any kind of circuit,” said Arrivabene. “We were controlling the race with Sebastian, but the double intervention of the Safety Car cancelled the gap we had built up.
“As for Kimi, after the accident on Lap 1, he charged back to second place. All weekend long, the team reacted strongly and calmly and now we’re looking ahead to the next race in Spain.”
