Ferrari had a great chance to take their first race victory of the season, with one half of the Mercedes duo stuck at the back of the grid. Things turned sour for the team right from the get go and their chance of victory was thrown away by disaster.
Ferrari got a get start off of the grid, but the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat got a better one. Things were going well into the first corner, but Nico Rosberg cut in front of Kimi Räikkönen, almost causing a collision. As a result, but Ferrari drivers widened their line around the corner. This allowed Kvyat to sneak up the inside. Once Sebastian Vettel saw Kvyat, he moved up the corner, but had forgotten that his teammate was there. As a result, the pair collided.
Sebastian Vettel shared his view on the first lap issue:
“What happened at the first lap, in the end, is a racing incident. From my side I didn’t really know where to go, I was sandwiched between Kimi and Daniil. Obviously I am terribly sorry for what has happened, I mean touching the car with the same colors is not right. It was a shame, because it destroyed both of our races, Kimi’s and mine. At the end of the day we’ve been lucky because we were still able to continue. The safety car helped us to sort of come back. Kimi locked up in turn one. I tried to go inside to pass him. Daniil was behind me. He had a better start and was lining up for the same move initially. I was determined to overtake Kimi. Daniil was determined to overtake me. Kimi came back from the left, Kvyat came from the back from the right and I was reacting to him. I tried to back out of it, going off throttle and hitting the brakes, but there was no way, so I had contact with Kimi which is a shame, the car was damaged after that, but obviously a great recovery by the Team, which managed to stay calm initially and then change the nose while the safety car was out. Overall we had great pace, good strategy, fantastic pit stops, I couldn’t have asked for more after this poor first lap. Hopefully in Russia we have a smoother race!”
Räikkönen got the worst of the accident, even though he managed to finish in the top five. Vettel suffered a bit, but he still managed to claim the second step of the podium, while Kvyat wrapped up the podium. There was a lot of tension between Vettel and Kvyat, as Vettel held the Russian responsible for the first lap incident. “I think it was a fair move on Vettel,” Kvyat explained after the race. “I saw the gap and I went for it. We didn’t touch, unfortunately for him, Kimi was on his other side. For me it was a logical move and it paid off with a podium.”
The incident was unfortunate for Ferrari, as the Ferrari chairman was in attendance for the first time this season. Sergio Marchionne was understandably upset with the situation that had occurred, although he had to be impressed with the team’s ability to salvage their race performance.
Although he doesn’t know what happened, Räikkönen ensures that there are no hard feelings between himself and his German teammate, saying: “Seb came to apologize to me afterwards and it’s obvious he didn’t run into me on purpose.”
Weekend Summary: 2016 Chinese Grand Prix
Vettel: Performance Wasn’t Worthy Of Top Three
Disaster For Hamilton In Qualifying
