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Vettel "not worried" despite losing championship lead

Published on 04 May 2018 13:22
4
By: Fergal Walsh

After losing his lead in the championship to Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel insists that he is not worried about the season ahead. The German led the driver's championship after the first three rounds, taking victory in Australia and Bahrain.

However, the four-time world champion dropped points in China after being hit by Max Verstappen, and also lost out in Azerbaijan after he botched an overtaking move on Valtteri Bottas. Now sitting in second in the standings, Vettel is not worried as he is confident about his car's abilities.

"The most important thing is that we have a good car," said Vettel. "We have a car that we can work with qualifying. If we can put it in the front we can fight for a win. We have good pace in the race.

"I’m not worried at all because I think it’s quite different to last year where in qualifying for most of the time for most of the year we weren’t competitive enough. And also then later in the season in the race we weren’t competitive enough to make things happen.

“But if you are quick enough you can make things happen. Now the way the race turned out today is for some people good, for some people bad – speak to Valtteri I’m pretty sure he’s not sure because it was his win! – but that’s how it goes. As I said I’m not worried because the car is there and we need to make sure it stays there.”

Vettel led the first half of the race in Baku, but dropped to second after he pitted and Bottas stayed out. Bottas then retained the lead after safety car meant he lost less time in the pit lane. And Vettel has defended his overtake attempt, which ended up costing him a podium finish.

"I tried because I saw there was a gap. Obviously going into turn one Lewis was on my right, Valtteri was straight ahead. I had the tow, I had more speed so I go on the inside. It didn’t work, I tried, I got caught out with the bump and the front locking.

"But I don’t want to blame it on the bump nor the front linking, in the end I’m captain on board and it just didn’t work. But we can’t let one-and-a-half or two seconds of the race have a shame on all the race because there’s a lot of positives.”

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel

Replies (4)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
I really hope Vettel will win this year. It'd be very good for F1 if something that isnt Mercedes were to win at least one championship. Mind, would be healthier if something that isnt Merc' Ferrari or Red Bull won the title.
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- May 4 2018 - 17:58
- ajpennypacker
  
  Posts: 2,475
  Quite frankly I care more about the how that the who. If it turns out into Vettel running away with the championship with Raikkonen playing second fiddle (ala Michael Schumacher) I will despise it. If it's a bunch of good races, with multiple winners, intra-team battles, etc... I don't care who wins.
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  May 4 2018 - 18:59
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Fair enough, I'd prefer that aswell, but at this rate I think F1 in itself need the kind of variation I mention. We need to see that something else than Merc' can run this show. But the hows will sweeten the deal for sure... Our sour it...
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  May 4 2018 - 19:01
dr002

Posts: 141
Agreed @AJPENNYPACKER..... As in the last race, I'd just be nice to see Vettel continue to fall over himself thereby allowing Kimi to skip by team orders into good finishing positions ahead of him...... Just deserts!
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- May 5 2018 - 07:04