Sebastian Vettel caught out by Felipe Massa in Q3

Sebastian Vettel was highly frustrated after qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix, after the reigning World Champion failed to secure pole position largely due to being caught out by the slow moving Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Instead of pitting, like Vettel initially thought, the Brazilian driver continued on the track forcing Vettel to back-off.

This minor altercation ultimately led to Sebastian Vettel qualifying only 2nd for the race, whereas team-mate Mark Webber stormed to a surprise pole. Although the German driver still has a tremendous opportunity to secure his fourth victory of the season during tomorrow’s race, the disappointment was still visible on the 25-year-old’s face after the qualifying session drew to conclusion with Mark Webber the centre of attention.

During the post-qualifying press conference, Sebastian Vettel was questioned about his remarks regarding Felipe Massa. The Red Bull driver stipulated that he was not blaming the Ferrari driver for allegedly blocking him, only that he caught him out by carrying on circulating on track instead of pitting. Sebastian Vettel still blames himself for not achieving pole, after a lap he has described as not good enough regardless of being caught out by Felipe Massa.

“We were quite quick in the first qualifying session, quite quick in the second one and then had a good start to Q3.” Explained Sebastian Vettel after the qualifying session, “But the last run, I don’t want to blame it on Felipe, I thought he was coming in but then on the last sector he was right in front of me so I had to back-off. Not ideal, just starting a timed lap, and just before that to back off but I think nevertheless the second lap wasn’t good enough. Surely the lap was fine but I should have been a little bit quicker, so yeah, wasn’t able in the end to do the final step, especially in the second sector.”

When questioned further with regards to Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel continued to reiterate that he did not blame Felipe Massa for ruining his final lap. The German driver even admitted it was his own fault for not realizing where Massa was on the circuit, and that his final lap would most likely not have beaten team-mate Mark Webber regardless of Massa’s location on the circuit.

“I don’t want to blame it on Felipe.” Continued Sebastian Vettel, “I don’t like all these discussions; we’ve had a lot of them lately. These things happen, it’s not Felipe’s fault at all. I should have known earlier. If anything it was my mistake. I might have lost a little bit but I’m not a fan of blaming anyone or anything for a certain result or not.”

Sebastian Vettel will unarguably be striving to overtake his team-mate as soon as possible when the lights go out at the start of tomorrow’s 55-lap race, even though he starts with a slight disadvantage on the dirtier side of circuit. The German driver stormed to victory last season at the Korean Grand Prix by starting 2nd on the grid, denying then poleman Lewis Hamilton of victory.

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