F1: Vettel Shows Heart With Charge To Third

Formula 1

F1: Vettel Shows Heart With Charge To Third

Sebastian Vettel overcame a grid penalty to finish third and remain the points leader in Abu Dhabi...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 04, 2012 Abu Dhabi (ARE)

Sebastian Vettel pulled off an amazing drive to third place in Abu Dhabi after starting the race from the pitlane.

The German made good progress in the early laps, benefiting from some first-lap incidents involving others, but he dropped from 12th to last after wing damage – from contact with Bruno Senna and later a marker board – forced him to drop out of the safety car queue.

From there, the Red Bull driver fought his way back, getting the final podium place from Jenson Button in the closing laps.

“Usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field, but we did it twice today,” said Vettel. “Obviously not the first couple of laps we were hoping for. We damaged the front wing early, which didn’t seem to be a big problem, but it was probably the worst possible time with the safety car.

“I think we were already quite high up, close to the top 10, around 13, 14, 15 or something like that. And then I had a moment with the Toro Rosso [Daniel Ricciardo]. I don’t know what he did. He was braking his car down and I was surprised, caught out. Maybe I should have paid more attention, but I went to the right and I wasn’t very lucky; there was the DRS board, which I took head on and then I thought, ‘Well, now the front is (having bad luck) at least, so we’ve got to change it.’

“We did it in the worst possible moment, during the safety car, when all the cars were already queued up, and, yeah, we lost everything. We were dead last. At least we had a fresh wing, and from then went through the field. It was a lot of fun. Quite difficult with some guys, a little bit easier with other guys, but the most important thing was that the pace was there and we were in a very strong position – already halfway through the race, 20 laps to the end and also on the soft tires in the last stint.”

Vettel was helped by the second safety car, which allowed him to close up on Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Button up ahead.

“Obviously the safety car helped a little bit. Nevertheless, I think it was a fantastic race: a great fight with Jenson in the end, who was the most difficult to pass,” Vettel said. “Obviously he was the quickest I passed in the whole race. I think it’s quite difficult for us to get past a Mercedes-engined car.

“It was very, very close with him. I enjoyed the fight a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very, very fair. You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid.

“And after that there were not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but the pace was there. Obviously, we had an interesting race, up and down all the time and a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today, but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy.

Sebastian Vettel maneuvers his Red Bull around Yas Marina Circuit. (Photo: Getty Images)

“The guys are pushing 100 percent. I feel very happy they’re all behind me, and I try to do my best for them. I think we have two more races ahead of us, we’re in the best possible position so I think we’re looking forward to the next race – a new Grand Prix (Austin), a new challenge. It’s difficult to know who is going to be quick, but I think it was another race today where we see that it’s over as soon as we see the checkered flag and not before.”

Regarding the error that saw his car not have enough fuel for qualifying, the German said: “There are so many things that could have worked differently. I made a mistake on the last run, I aborted the lap, nobody ever finds out, nobody realizes there was a problem.

“It was a mistake, there was no intention to go stupidly close to the limit for a gain of nearly nothing. I think it's different to what happened to Lewis (Hamilton) in Barcelona at the beginning of the season. Obviously, they deliberately put less fuel in the car and stopped on the in-lap, but for us, we had enough fuel but somehow we had enough fuel on paper but not in the car.

“We stopped the car for emergency reasons, not to damage anything and then obviously it was quite a long procedure yesterday and unfortunately we couldn't drain the fuel that we wanted and it was not enough to provide the sample so it was as simple as that.

“Rules are clear. I think the penalty was very harsh but we had to take it. Rules are clear. If it happens to you in race three and you are in a similar position at the end of the year, nobody is asking and it's not a big fuss, but if it happens to you three races from the end, obviously there's more attention, etc. We had to live with that.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.