Sebastian Vettel admits his overriding emotion was simply frustration as a “small mistake” had a “big impact” on his German Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Ferrari driver was in control of his home race at Hockenheim for the first half, pulling out a comfortable margin over Valtteri Bottas in second, but things turned sour after his pit-stop as he grew frustrated at being stuck behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who had jumped ahead having switched to a two-stop strategy.
Eventually, the 2018 version of ‘Fernando is faster than you’ would take place as the pit-wall introduced team orders, but as the second of two light rain showers fell later on, the track was just wet enough for Vettel to lock his rear brakes entering the Sachskurve and slide helplessly into the barrier and out of the race.
His disappointment was clear over the radio with a series of expletives and the 31-year-old admitted it was just one of those things.
“I was in the barrier and realised I don’t get out from there so how do you process that,” he said. “I don’t think it was a huge mistake but it was a huge impact on the race as we retired there.
It is not like tonight I’ll have difficulties falling asleep because of what I’ve done. I think it is disappointing because up until that point everything was sweet.
“As I said we didn’t need the rain.”
What made it worse was the subsequent Safety Car put championship rival Lewis Hamilton into the lead and allowed him to claim victory, opening up a 17-point lead in the Drivers’ standings.
That didn’t concern the 31-year-old, however.
“We have a strong car so we can be confident more than anyone else,” he claimed.
“It was just one of those moments. My mistake so apologies to the team as they did everything dead right.
“I had it in my hands, small mistake, big disappointment.”
