Sebastian Vettel conceded third was the best position possible during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the pace of Mercedes simply too strong for the Ferrari driver.
The four-time world champion was hoping the trend of the Scuderia closing on the world champion’s in race trim would continue after being half a second down on the pole time set by Valtteri Bottas.
Instead, as the two Silver Arrows pushed themselves on in a head-to-head for the win, Vettel was left to mind his own business in third, eventually finishing almost 20 seconds behind the Finn, who kept teammate Lewis Hamilton at bay for the victory.
“The first couple of laps I thought it was pretty good but then I had to let them go, I couldn’t go with the pace that they had,” the German said. “After that, I think I settled into a rhythm but I was on my own and the gap was quite big so I could close a bit in the final stages but yeah it didn’t really matter because we were a bit in no man’s land.”
While obviously disappointed to be so far behind in the season finale, after pushing Mercedes for much of the year, Vettel wasn’t too unhappy with the race performance he put in.
“Overall I think it’s been a good race, the second stint for me was better but we lost the connection in the race in the first stint,” he claimed. “Yeah, I would have liked to be a bit more in the fight today to put those two under pressure but I’m obviously happy with the podium, it was a good result.
“A strong result for the team, third and fourth but overall not where we wanted to be.”
One consolation too came from the confirmation of second in the Drivers’ Championship, ending Mercedes’ grip on the top two places in the hybrid era.
“Yeah. But obviously, I would’ve preferred to win today,” Vettel admitted. “I think there’s lots of positives to take from this season. I’m not sure if Kimi got P4 as well in the Drivers’ but, overall, it’s been a good day.”
Raikkonen did jump Daniel Ricciardo into fourth in the standings following the fourth place he inherited from the Australian after his third retirement in four races to end the year at Yas Marina.
That didn’t exactly enthral the Finn, however, who bemoaned the inability to push during the 55 laps on Sunday.
“To be honest, the whole race was pretty much fuel-saving, trying to hold the guy behind and save enough fuel to be legal at the end,” he said afterwards.
“Nothing to do with racing, really. Unfortunately that’s the rules. Some circuits it’s like this, and it’s not really fun. We had a decent car, but when it’s like this there’s nothing to do with the car.”
