Sebastian Vettel: “I would have loved to get the podium”

The German driver made no attempt to hide behind any excuses for the error, saying that he and the team had thought he had done enough: “Nothing wrong with the vehicle, we thought that the lap I had on the Soft (harder) tyres was quick enough, but in the end it was not”. “The first session is not very representative of race conditions here, because the track temperatures are much higher than you would have in the evening, so we took the opportunity to try a few test parts that will help us in the development of next year’s vehicle”. “But it was still a very strong lap, which makes me feel happy with the balance as well”.

The 26-year-old Finn now sits in fourth place in the drivers’ standings and will start the race in the UAE capital only one point ahead of his compatriot and Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen.

“There are a lot of cars ahead of us that should not be ahead of us, but it is up to us to turn it around”.

“This year we have been in contention with the top three, so we are moving the right way”. The 28-year-old now has 79 podium appearances to his name, one behind his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who recorded his 80th – tying the legendary Ayrton Senna – by taking third at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday.

“Pretty average, I must say”. I think we have never been that close to the Mercedes.

“Obviously Senna is a special champion because unfortunately he’s not around anymore, he will always be remembered in a very strong way”. “Better than past year, but still far away from what it should be, but that is life…”

“Compared to last year, this was a good year for Kimi”, said team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, “but it had its ups and downs. Enjoy that moment”, said Vettel. “As a team though, we’ve gone a long way from last year, we all want to get Ferrari back where it was some years ago and everybody is pushing for that”. No big exciting plans, I’m sorry.

“I was quite lucky that there was no damage to the vehicle”.