Vettel Hits Out At Ferrari, Blames Raikkonen For Hamilton Incident

Sebastian Vettel has finally opened up on his disastrous Italian Grand Prix outcome after the pre-race favorite suffered a crash on the opening lap and had to settle for fourth place.

The German driver started in second place after he was beaten to pole position by teammate Kimi Raikkonen and instead of being patient, he tried to pass the Finn on the opening lap and his failure to do so opened the door for title rival Lewis Hamilton — who started in third — to attempt a pass, which he completed successfully despite coming into contact with Vettel.

The Ferrari driver was on the inside and crashed into the Mercedes and suffered front wing damage and a spin that left him facing the wrong direction. After his stop for repairs, he came out at the back of the field and had to make his way through to finally finish in fourth to limit the damage in the championship race.

Vettel initially blamed Hamilton for the opening lap collision, but has now put part of the blame on Raikkonen. He also hit out at Ferrari and believes they should start favoring him as he battles Hamilton for the F1 Drivers’ title.

Mercedes have made it clear that Bottas will play the supporting role for the rest of the season and the Finn displayed it in Italy when he helped Hamilton catch up to Raikkonen after the first round of pit stops. But Vettel has received no such help from his Finnish teammate thus far.

Raikkonen benefitted from being behind Vettel during the final run in qualifying to snatch pole position and the latter thinks it should have been the other way around. Ferrari are generally one of the first to impose team orders, but have refrained from doing so this season.

The Italian team will need to sort out the situation with their lead driver if they are to end Mercedes’ four-year dominance of F1 in 2018. Ferrari have a car that is as fast as that of Mercedes, but were unable to consistently challenge due to poor strategy calls and driver errors during the course of the season.

“When I had to evade him in the next chicane, Lewis could get past,” Vettel said, according to Planet F1. “I had no space and made a spin and had severe damage.”

“I’m not particularly happy with the way Ferrari managed things on Saturday. It should’ve been me starting from pole position. For me, it’s clear: I have to race three cars, including my teammate,” the German added.

The F1 juggernaut will head to Singapore for the next night race of the season on the streets of the Asian city. Ferrari are the favorite ahead of Mercedes yet again, and they will hope to capitalize and close the gap on the championship leaders.

Meanwhile, Ferrari are yet to make a decision on Vettel’s teammate for 2019. But reports suggest that an announcement could be made in the coming days.

Raikkonen has been favorite to retain the seat for at least one more season, but talks about Ferrari academy driver Charles Leclerc, who has impressed in his debut season in F1 with Sauber, replacing the Finn have resurfaced in recent days.