Source: Ferrari Media

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Vettel had no problems letting Raikkonen past

Vettel had "no problems" letting Raikkonen past

12-11-2018 13:10
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he had no problems getting team orders to let his teammate Kimi Raikkonen past, as the Finn was much quicker once he appeared behind the four-time champion.

Ferrari had a race to forget at Interlagos, with Raikkonen barely hanging onto P3 and Vettel finishing in a distant P6. They were predicted to be the team to beat, but after missing out on pole position and a very poor start of the race, that was clearly not the case. Both Red Bull cars easily overtook the Ferrari's, with Max Verstappen getting past both after just four laps, and Vettel and Raikkonen didn't seem to be completely comfortable in the car.

Still, Raikkonen had way more pace than Vettel after pitting, and with Vettel being in front of the Finn, he was ordered to step aside and let the Ice Man past. 

“It’s pretty straightforward,” Vettel explained to PlanetF1.

“Kimi came out of the pits with a fresher set of tyres and I had a couple of laps to try and get something done with Valtteri – when it didn’t work, the team asked me to let him have a go so no problems with that.

“I like Kimi and I was happy to let him get a shot and he made it [to the podium] so I’m happy for him.”

Vettel was then asked to rate his performance out of ten, and the four-time champ was pretty hard on himself after a disappointing outing at Interlagos.

“I tried everything but obviously in terms of the result, I would rate it as one out of ten, and that’s with one being bad.

“I don’t think we were on top of the car, the tyres. I don’t think it was an advantage to start on the soft compound tyre, because the supersoft lasted a longer time – longer than I think we all expected. But that’s how it is.”