Ferrari said "we didn't reap what
we sowed" after Sebastian Vettel came second and Charles Leclerc
seventh in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Sunday.
Vettel's second place behind Mercedes Valtteri Bottas meant
the German four-time world champ is now 126 points behind
Mercdes five time world champ Lewis Hamilton with five races to
go, while Leclerc is 117 points begin the Briton.
Mercedes has already clinched its sixth straight
constructors' championship.
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow leaves Suzuka and the
Japanese Grand Prix having picked up a second place with
Sebastian Vettel and a seventh with Charles Leclerc, the FI
glamour team said.
That "definitely did not live up to expectations" given the
front row lockout in qualifying held at 10 in the morning
because of the Hagibis typhoon. Sebastian paid the price for a
hesitant start, while Charles had to deal with the after-effects
of a coming together with Max Verstappen at the first corner.
The Dutchman spun, while the Monegasque had to pit after
three laps to change his damaged front wing, which meant he had
to fight back from last place.
Vettel said: "We had a very good morning, but the afternoon
was less good in terms of the result we were able to achieve as
a team. The start wasn't good for either me or Charles and
without that, we could have had both cars fighting at the front.
It was difficult today and to be fair. Our rivals were simply
quicker, Valtteri was just flying.
I had a poor start, I was a bit early with the clutch initially
then clutched in again and lost a bit of momentum. Usually our
starts are very good but not this time. After that we were
missing out a little bit in terms of speed in the race compared
to our rivals. We went through the tyres more than Valtteri and
Lewis. Especially at the end of the stints they were dropping
off a bit more, whereas our rivals kept the pace throughout.
Towards the end my only target was to stay ahead of Lewis. I
knew that down the straights he struggled to overtake, so I just
tried to have clean exits in the places where it mattered."
Leclerc said: "It was a tough race. I made a mistake at the
start and made contact with Max (Verstappen) in turn 1, which
unfortunately compromised both our races and my front wing was
damaged.
"I tried to make the best of it going forward. After the
first stop, when my front wing was changed, I gave it my all. I
tried to make up as many positions as possible. Although it was
quite fun to overtake other cars and fight my way up the field,
P6 is not our target or a result we are satisfied with. It was a
different weekend overall, and I look forward to the opportunity
of bringing home better results once again at the upcoming
races."
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal, said:
"Congratulations from all of us to our rivals and friends for
nailing another well-deserved Constructors' Championship today.
Over the course of the season, they simply did the best job and
that's exactly what you need in this business.
For our part, I'd like to highlight a positive aspect, namely
the performance of our car, which was good enough to secure the
front row in qualifying this morning - an exceptional result
here at Suzuka. As for the race itself, we are disappointed that
we did not reap the rewards of what we had sown. A shame. The
start compromised the rest of the race, although it has to be
said that our rival's pace was very strong and we suffered more
than them with tyre degradation. We made mistakes and now we
just have to look to ourselves to improve."
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