Ferrari: Räikkönen on the podium, Vettel in the wall

There was confusion on the Ferrari pit wall after Sebastian Vettel’s retirement at the beginning of the 26th lap. The right rear tire of the German’s Ferrari shredded, sending the car into the barrier on the home straight.

It took a moment before Vettel decided to exit his car, stuck in the middle of the track after bouncing off the inside rail: « When the right rear gave out, I didn’t feel anything special or at least I felt it too late and it totally exploded. There were no signs before that, everything was normal. I spoke with the guys on the pit wall and everything seemed normal. The pace was the same the lap before, the tires were good, and my lap times were correct. The question remains as to why the tire blew. »

When questioned about his strategy of taking his Super Soft tires as far as possible, Vettel does not think it was the cause of the incident: « I think it wasn’t an aggressive strategy. Others went even further with the same type of tire. »

On his part, Kimi Räikkönen recovers an unexpected podium in the last lap after his race strategy was disrupted by the safety car’s deployment: “It wasn’t an easy day but I did my best. The 3rd place is a good result, but I’m a bit disappointed with where we finished, considering at the start of the race, given our position, we could have hoped for better. After my first pit stop, I lost time trying to overtake Ricciardo. I was close to him but lost traction coming out of turn 2. In the last part of the race, I could have overtaken Verstappen, but with the yellow flags on track it was impossible,” concluded the somewhat disheartened Finn.