A very good race especially the result, but it wasn't as impressive as Australia. He lost a lot of places at the start whereas the two Caterhams got ahead of a couple of midfield cars. His bad start meant that he got stuck behind van der Garde for about 15 laps. His pace after that was good, at one part in the race he managed to maintain a 3-4 second gap to Maldonado. At the end of the day the final result is what matters and I'd be surprised if Caterham are able to beat P13.
True! please log in to view this image Vettel "didn’t mean to ignore the call... I got it. I heard it. But obviously no action followed cos I misunderstood. I can only apologise" Say whatty???
Sorry, in my book that is the equivalent of cheating. If webber thought a race was intended he would not have turned his engine down and likely would not have been taken surprise. Vettel needs to give back on that and actually is not honest. We can all be ruthless, that is easy. Disappointed for button, he might have been 4th even 3rd with fuel issues on the merc. So, China is now a test of the pecking order, will be interesting.
[video=youtube;wpmW4y5eitw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wpmW4y5eitw#![/video]
Feel bad for Rosberg but even worse for Webber. Vettel robbed him of a deserved victory by ignoring team orders whereas Webber followed them. That's very unsporting, yes Vettel wants to win and is a world class driver but what he did today has made him lose respect among the F1 fan base and maybe some journalists and pundits. I think this will be enough for Webber to leave at the end of the season. The trust has gone
Webber was in the wrong there too As I said don't think team orders should have happened in either situation but it did, and they both should have listened.
Thought the Rosberg team order was disgusting. Much quicker race pace and beind a man handicapped saving fuel. There should not have been a problem overtaking and Lewis got protected there. What happens if Nico loses the title by a couple of points now?! Have to say Lewis still looks a one-dimension guy at the moment- he needs to learn in the same way Mansell did all those years ago- that you can manage pace and tyres and then be electric at latter parts of a race. As for Red Bull- if the instruction was no racing after final pit stop, Vettel is in the wrong. Above all though, it is Red Bull and Mercedes in the wrong. Let the drivers race- thats the point of the sport!
Yeah that team order was ridiculous. If Rosberg had passed Lewis he had a chance of maybe challenging the Red Bulls. The positions would have been same or even better if he had passed him. As for the race, Lewis was told to push hard during the first two stints on the medium tyres to pressure Red Bull, he is capable of saving tyres as we seen him do last season in Hungary, Monza and USA.
Yes good point to be fair, they were told to push hard early. I'm a big advocate of Lewis as he is an exceptionally quick driver. What I want to see him do is improve his race management. Positive step for Jenson and McClaren, they had good race pace. Still a long way to go yet though.
So Vettel is basically a liar since he told Sky's reporter that he didn't get a call over the radio telling him what to do. Here, he says he did and ignored it.
He's backing himself into a corner. He knows he's done wrong and there is nothing he can do about it.
How does one get the message? Then claim they didn't understand it? Then say they choose to ignore it? You could say that something may have been lost in translation but if their code word for hold station is "Multi-21?" then he should have known that. Quite simply he said/thought, sod team orders, "I'm having this win.." I don't think Webber will be very helpful from from now until the end of the year..
Press conference: Q: Sebastian, congratulations, your 27th career victory, equalling Sir Jackie Stewart and on a day when one of your main rivals for the championship, arguably, Fernando Alonso scored no points. You said at the midway stage in the race, something along the lines of “I’m faster than Mark, let me through.” But in the end, you did it yourself. Can you tell us how your race unfolded. SV: Obviously it was an interesting one to start with and mixed conditions. I think we weren’t too bad on the crossover going to dries. Probably a little bit too soon. Some places on the track looked pretty dry but they turned out to be still quite a bit damp. I think coming out in traffic didn’t help, so I lost the lead at that time, which I think put us in position two, three at that time because after that it was quite a long race, trying to look after tyres. Towards the end I feel I had quite a strong pace and obviously at the very end on a new set of medium tyres had a bit more speed and it was a close fight but I think… yeah… as you can see I’m not entirely happy. I think I did a big mistake today. I think we should have stayed in the positions that we were. I didn’t ignore it on purpose but I messed up in that situation and obviously took the lead which, I can see now he’s upset, but yeah, I want to be honest at least and stick to the truth and apologise. I know that it doesn’t really help his feelings right now but I think other than that, obviously a very good race for the team. We handed the tyres I think pretty well today. To sum it up, apologies to Mark, obviously now the result is there but… yeah, all I can say is that I didn’t do it deliberately. Q: What exactly do you mean? Was there some understanding between you that you’ve broken? SV: No. I think obviously we talk about these kind of things before we go into the race and its not the first time we race each other. I think the difference in pace at the end probably wasn’t fair because he was trying to save the car and the tyres and, as I said, I did not ignore that but I should have been aware, to be honest. Obviously then took quite a lot of risk to pass him and that was the end of the race then. Q: Mark, obviously there have been some times in the past when you’ve been very close together and things have been said. Your reaction to what Sebastian has just said. MW: Well, I was happy with how I drove today. I think it was a very good team result. We went into the race a little bit worried about how the race would unfold for us as a team in terms of performance. You still have to drive the grands prix these days at eight-tenths - it’s not like the old day when grand prix drivers are driving flat out and leaning on the tyres like hell - because the tyres are wearing out. So it’s not the most satisfying thing for us as grand prix drivers these days - but it’s the same for everybody. And then yeah… got myself into a position where we were controlling the race. I was being told the target lap times, again in relation to how the tyres are. Obviously Seb and Lewis come back to me at one point in the race, I responded and lifted the pace up and got away around the stop. And then we had a pretty good situation tee’d up towards the end of the race. And then after the last stop I thought that it would be interesting how the team would deal with it and I was ready for a sprint to the end. And then the team obviously rang up and said “the race is… the pressure is off now. We need to look after the tyres to the end. Basically don’t fight each other.” I turned the engine down. We have some codes in terms of getting the cars to the end. In the end I’m happy with how I drove and… yeah it doesn’t… yeah, emotions are… probably not the best time to talk at the moment. Q: Lewis, congratulations on your first podium as a Mercedes driver. You don’t look particularly happy about it. In your case you retained the position and Nico stayed behind you to the finish. Describe your race. LH: The team did a fantastic job, so I’m very happy to be up here representing them. They’ve been working so hard over the winter and obviously welcomed me into the team so to be up here and to be on the second row for me and Nico is a great feeling. But of course, I don’t feel spectacular sitting here. Obviously I think Nico deserved to be where I am right now but obviously the team thought that, I guess, with the position in the Championship perhaps it was logical to stay in the positions we were in. But yeah, I have to say a big congratulations to Nico because he drove a much smarter and much more controlled race than I did today. Vettel squirming Webber almost in shock Hamilton showing humility
Not sure quite what Caterham mean by this, but they've described their car for the first 3 races as a 'hybrid car', in a negative sense. Can't make any more from the quotes from the team, but I kind of get the impression that the car they have for race 4 and onwards is likely to be a significant step up.
Most at Red Bull are most likely secretly delighted that Vettel nicked the race. What he did was unfair but in all honesty Webber should be letting Vettel through, as Vettel is good enough to win a world title in that car, were as Webber is an average driver and consistently finishes behind guys who have slower cars than him. Webber should just be happy that Red Bull still employ him, as he wouldn't get a seat at any of the other top teams
