Sebastian Vettel vows to ‘race hard’ to recover from disappointing Abu Dhabi GP qualifying

Jonathan Raymond spoke to Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel after a disappointing qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix resulted in the German starting 16th place on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel, a three-time winner in Abu Dhabi, will start Sunday's race 16th on the grid. Hamad I Mohammed / Reuters

The German was expected to be the closest challenger to the front-running Mercedes drivers at today’s Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but to do so he will have to fight back from 16th after a shock exit in first qualifying (Q1). He spoke to Jonathan Raymond.

Strategic error

Observers assumed Vettel must have had a power failure on his final Q1 lap, but the German was clear after qualifying — he and his Ferrari team simply thought they were already safely through. “We thought we were quick enough, the time was enough,” he said. “I should have done a quicker lap, and we could have made it. In that moment we thought it’s enough but it wasn’t, so quite costly.”

[Grid places, times and driver ratings from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying]

What now?

“I think we know what happened,” Vettel said. “Now, obviously, we start the race from the back but that’s the challenge. We try every weekend to all do our best and obviously this weekend we didn’t get it right. One mistake with big consequences for tomorrow — means that a lot of cars are ahead of us that shouldn’t be ahead of us, so up to us to turn it around.”

Not unprecedented

In Canada, in June, Vettel began from 18th after a technical problem in qualifying. His driving the next day brought him back to finish fifth. “It’s a different circuit,” he said, “but I think we are similarly competitive. As I said, I think we are quicker than the cars right in front of us it. Depends on the start, the first couple of laps and strategy — whether there’s a safety car or not, which brings the field back together. There’s a lot of variables. In the end we will try, I will try to race hard and we see.”

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How to get it done

“I think it depends … who you want to overtake. Of course, if you get further up it naturally becomes more difficult,” Vettel said. “But there’s a lot of cars I think we are a lot quicker than, so hopefully we can clear them and we’ll see. It’s a long race, maybe we can do something with strategy, et cetera. We have to be awake, have to be ready. I think you can overtake even if sometimes it’s not easy. It’s not impossible.”

Incomplete grade

Asked how he saw his season, Vettel said: “It’s not really the end. One more day to go. It’s been good. Obviously, we see how tomorrow goes.”

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