Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari’s only survivor in Brazil

Sebastian Vettel started his Grand Prix in fifth place just behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The race did not start well for the German, who spun out in the early laps due to aquaplaning. Fortunately for the four-time world champion, he was able to continue without issues: « Obviously, today wasn’t ideal in the first part of the race, I had aquaplaning but I wasn’t the only one. »

The former Red Bull driver chose to stop after ten laps to gamble on fitting intermediate tires. The German, who had lost many positions, hoped to start his comeback with theoretically better-performing tires, but that was without considering the race interruption caused by the accident of his teammate Kimi Räikkönen.

Once the race resumed, Sebastian Vettel finally began his climb through the middle of the pack, stringing together incisive, even aggressive overtakes, including pushing Fernando Alonso off the track to pass him: « I think it was a good comeback in the end, it was difficult to recover, and I struggled to get past Sainz. I don’t know why it took me many laps before I really started to feel good in the car. And then it was too late. »

On his way, Vettel, like many drivers, experienced the law of Max Verstappen who executed a maneuver on him similar to that previously done by the German on Fernando Alonso. This overtaking on the outside by the Dutchman, admittedly a bit forceful but within reasonable limits, did not fail to make the four-time world champion react: « About the duel with Verstappen, I think I was side by side with him and he saw me. I still had part of my wing in front, he was much faster so he took the corner and went over the curb. But I don’t think it was entirely correct. »

Sebastian Vettel still finishes in fifth place in the race just behind Sergio Pérez and saves the day for the Scuderia, of which he is the only survivor: « I don’t want to complain about anything today. I think I wasn’t the only one who had aquaplaning, but fortunately, I didn’t crash. »

Kimi Räikkönen, meanwhile, started his race on the second row alongside Max Verstappen. The first laps were quite calm as he spent, like all the other drivers, numerous laps behind the safety car: « Today’s [Sunday’s] conditions were not the easiest, it was very tricky, and when you do a lot of laps behind the safety car, it becomes even more difficult. It wasn’t raining much, but there was a lot of standing water. »

WATCH: Räikkönen crash brings out the red flags in Brazil

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— Formula 1 (@F1) 13 novembre 2016

The 2007 world champion comes to a stop on the nineteenth lap to fit new Rain tires. The rest of his race was quite brief because during the restart after the second safety car, caused by the crash just before the pit entry of Marcus Ericsson, the former Lotus driver fell victim to aquaplaning on the start/finish straight, leading to the premature end of his race. Kimi Räikkönen’s car was miraculously avoided by the other drivers behind him as it was out of control in the middle of the main straight: « The biggest problem was aquaplaning, and I got it in a place where I did not expect it, I went spinning to the right! I almost recovered the car, but I ended up in a very bad place. Rain tires are very vulnerable, sensitive to aquaplaning. »

The Nordic driver also engaged in a comparison of the current rain tires and those used a few years ago: « It obviously depends on the circuit and many other things, but if I compare to ten or twelve years ago, those tires could handle this kind of rain without problems, without aquaplaning. Aquaplaning is the biggest issue; if we have a bit of standing water, we have no grip. »

This overall result definitively gives Red Bull the second place in the 2016 constructors’ standings, having dominated Scuderia throughout the year, even though the reds showed a lot of ambition at the start of the championship.