Vettel lucky to have avoided the crash between Massa and Pérez

The end of the Canadian Grand Prix in Formula 1 was marked by the accident involving Felipe Massa and Sergio Pérez, at the beginning of the last lap. The two men, battling for a podium for several minutes, collided as the Brazilian attempted an overtaking maneuver on the Mexican. The latter was judged responsible for the incident.

In their out-of-control race towards the tire wall at the first corner, the two cars went on either side of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, who had just overtaken Pérez at the chicane’s braking. The German even had to, in a lifesaving reflex, slow down and open up his trajectory to avoid being hit by the out-of-control Williams.

For *Sky Sports*, the four-time world champion recounts this particular moment: « In turn 1, I just saw that they were very close to each other, and I saw Felipe – or something white – coming in my rearview mirror, so at the last moment, I reacted. Felipe went through. It was quite surreal, but luckily, he didn’t hit me. »

This is how close Vettel came to being speared by Massa. #F1

Watch it here: https://t.co/lUg0auCVNp pic.twitter.com/jYW89OlxR6

— SPEED TV Australia (@SPEEDTVAUS) 9 Juin /f1/actualite/17823-massa-et-perez-penalise-sont-sortis-de-lhopital.html

The Red Bull driver was able to reach the finish and secure his second podium of the season (and the 64th of his career), behind Daniel Ricciardo, the Grand Prix winner, and Nico Rosberg, a long-time leader but betrayed by the MGU-K of his Mercedes W05 Hybrid. However, Vettel was not completely satisfied with this result, as he was stuck behind Nico Hülkenberg’s Force India for a long time, which was on a one-stop strategy.

From about the 20th lap, no doubt, after the first stop, two laps before I caught up with Nico, my race was essentially over, he explains. I couldn’t pass until the end, there was no way for us on the straights, the Mercedes-powered cars were too fast. Additionally, we had to defend against the Williams behind and I asked to do something with the strategy, which I thought was possible. It didn’t really help me do anything different and that was the pace we truly had, so in the end, I pitted and lost a place to Daniel.

In addition to ending up behind his own teammate, the German was caught in a train led by Sergio Pérez, the other Force India, also on a one-stop strategy. The Mexican eventually gave way in the final laps, being overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo and then Sebastian Vettel before ending up in the wall following the collision with Massa.

But, the one who is currently 5th in the drivers’ championship wants to take something positive from this somewhat crazy race while remaining clear-headed: “But it’s still a positive day: Daniel’s first victory, Renault’s first victory in this new era of engines. They have made a good comeback, but as we saw today, there is still a lot of work ahead of us because the Mercedes are still much faster on the straights.”