World champion reflects on first retirement in over a year
Last Updated: November 13, 2011 7:06pm
Early exit: Vettel watches from the pit wall after his retirement
Sebastian Vettel admitted to feeling "hurt" after his quest for a 12th win of the F1 season instead brought retirement in Abu Dhabi.
The world champion appeared set for victory when he made a clean start at the Yas Marina Circuit to comfortably lead Lewis Hamilton through turn one.
However, Vettel's Red Bull then suffered a right rear puncture and he was left a passenger when his car pitched into a spin.
After Hamilton had led the field past, the German trundled back to the pits but suspension damage brought his first retirement since last year's Korean Grand Prix.
"On the exit of the first corner, everything seemed fine and then turning into the second corner I could feel that something was odd on the rear right," Vettel explained. "I had to catch the car surprisingly and then the second time, I couldn't do it anymore, as I'd lost too much air in the rear right tyre.
"I had a puncture and spun off. When I got back to the pits, the resulting suspension damage meant we couldn't carry on.
"There wasn't anything we could have done better really this weekend; we just need to look at what had caused the puncture.
"I had a good start and I was very happy with the car up until that point. To lose the race there, so early on, it hurts for sure," added Vettel, who cannot now match Michael Schumacher's record of 13 wins in a season.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was unable to offer any clear answer as to what caused Vettel's accident.
"Basically, all we can see from the data is that after a tremendous start into turn one, on the kerb there has been an instantaneous loss of pressure," said Horner.
"So by the time he has arrived at turn two there is no pressure and that has caused the car to spin, and that is what has damaged the suspension.
"At the moment we don't know whether it is a bit of debris from one of the support races because he wasn't particularly high on the kerb or anything like that.
"He just appears to have been unlucky today, but we will now work with the guys from Pirelli to understand what the failure was.
"We need to piece things together from the bits of tyre carcass, the wheel rim, the data and video footage we have.
"The likelihood is the tyre has picked something up, it has cut it and it has lost pressure."
Worth a punt
It was left to Mark Webber to fly the flag for Red Bull, with the Australian finishing fourth after the team decided to put him on a three-stop strategy.
After trying unsuccessfully to pass McLaren's Jenson Button in the track's two DRS zones in the early laps, Webber fell to fifth behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa after a wheel nut problem led to a slow opening stop.
Unlike the other frontrunners, Red Bull kept Webber on the softer option tyre at his second stop in the hope he could pass Massa and even have a shot at Button's third place.
Webber therefore had to make a mandatory stop on the final lap to fit the prime tyre and although he cleared Massa, Button remained out of reach.
"On the second pit stop, we fitted the option tyre again to try and cut the race down to something different; it was certainly worth a bit of a punt," Webber said.
"We had a bad first pit stop, so we lost a lot of time with that. It put us on the back foot. I got the car back onto the leaders, but we were out of position by then."
Describing his early dice with Button, Webber added: "The two DRS zones are tricky here; in the first one it was easy to get the move done, but in the second one you couldn't, so if I passed Jenson there, he could just get you back again.
"I think it was a bit of a gimmick today the DRS, it was difficult to make the move stick and harder to get the move done, as I say in Turn 11."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
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