Vettel: « I was surprised to come out ahead of Kimi »

The question was on the lips of everyone present at the post-race press conference: were there team orders to favor Sebastian Vettel over his teammate Kimi Räikkönen? Although several approaches were attempted on the subject, both drivers remained stoic and maintained that the strategy did not explicitly aim to favor the German, who is leading the drivers’ world championship.

The defense was that Kimi Räikkönen was not the first to pit among the leaders, as it was indeed Max Verstappen who decided to initiate the pit stops, consequently forcing Valtteri Bottas to do the same on the following lap. Thus, according to Sebastian Vettel, it was to avoid being put under pressure by the Mercedes driver that Scuderia decided to pit the Finn: « If Valtteri stopped, it was because he wanted to put us under pressure. If it meant nothing. Kimi was able to stop first because he had the priority and I knew I couldn’t stop at the same time because there wasn’t enough gap between us. »

To justify his strategy, he relies on his former team, demonstrating that Daniel Ricciardo managed to overtake both his teammate and Valtteri Bottas by stopping later. He then simply stated that he gave it his all during the few laps he had before his own stop: « I told myself it was now or never. So I gave it my all. Several times, I thought I was losing the car and was going to crash. I knew I could go faster, but I didn’t know by how much. In fact, I was surprised to come out ahead of Kimi. »

The main person concerned thus declared that it was indeed he who had asked to stop: « It’s me who asked for it and that’s all. It didn’t end very well. I’m on the wrong side of history. » He then clearly played the team work side rather than personal interest: « It’s a good thing for the team but not for me. But if you start not following the team’s requests, it can quickly become very complicated. We always try to do our best. Today, the team wanted a double. We got it. However, for me… »

Sebastian Vettel also acknowledged that he understood his teammate’s reaction and that he would have exactly the same if the situations were reversed: « I can understand that Kimi is not entirely happy today. I would be exactly like him if it had been the case for me. »

It is therefore paradoxical that this first one-two finish between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen is Ferrari’s first one-two since the 2010 German Grand Prix when the pit wall made it clear to Felipe Massa: « Fernando is faster than you! » It will be interesting to see how the relationship between the two men, friends so far, evolves in the races to come… But the reaction on the podium left no doubt about the feelings of the two men following this race.

Meanwhile on the podium…

Seb 😁
Kimi 😐#MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/pQH9norD6j

— Formula 1 (@F1) 28 May 2017

From our special correspondent in Monaco