Sunday: Vettel and Red Bull come within a hair’s breadth of the podium in Shanghai

Sebastian Vettel – 4th:

« After the last stop, the team told me that there was quite a gap with the cars in front but also a big gap behind me, so we thought we should give it a shot. When I came onto the long straight and saw Lewis at the other end, turning at the hairpin, I thought to myself: « Well, that’s a bit too far. » But obviously, we had much more speed with the fresher tires. It was a bit disappointing to miss the podium by so little: a few more corners and we could have tried something.

Nevertheless, our strategy seems to have worked today. We knew it would be difficult and that it was crucial to have clear laps, but that wasn’t the case during the first stint. I was faster than Nico (Hülkenberg), but when you’re following another car, you push just a little too hard on the front tires and it was difficult to find the right balance, but overall we can be happy.

Mark Webber – Abandon:

The start of the race went well. We decided to get rid of the soft tires as quickly as possible and moved up the field nicely. Regarding the incident with Jean-Eric [Vergne], I was at a reasonable distance behind him, he was really wide but when we approached the apex, he wanted to take it, which is fully his right, but I had dived inside and the incident occurred. It was a few laps before our pit stop window, so I had to come in a bit earlier. The guys thought the wheel was attached but it came off during the out lap from the pits.

We encountered some problems this weekend: I think we could have done something from our starting position today, but it was not meant to be.

N.B.: After the race, Mark Webber was deemed responsible for the accident with Jean-Eric Vergne and received a 3-place grid penalty for the next Grand Prix in Bahrain.