Formula 1

No team orders from Ferrari, insists Sebastian Vettel

Published May. 28, 2017 6:04 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Sebastian Vettel says that scoring Ferrari’s first Monaco GP win since Michael Schumacher’s 2001 success was “special” - but the German was also keen to point out that he was not favored over Kimi Raikkonen by team orders.

Raikkonen had led the first 34 laps of the race until pitting, and when Vettel stopped five laps later, he emerged in front of his teammate.

“I think it’s most important that we had a very, very good day, a win,” said Vettel. “A supreme day for Ferrari; it’s been a long time. I think it means an awful lot to the team. I will not find the right words, but for me it was a pretty special race. At some point I was thinking, ‘there must be a Safety Car,’ and then it came at the end, when I didn’t really need it, but fine.

“I dreamt all night about how to get ahead of the start because I knew that would probably be the only chance I would get. It didn’t work. Kimi had a good start, mine was OK, so I couldn’t really go anywhere. Then, I think in the first stint I was just trying to pace myself, trying to stay within range. At some point I was really uncomfortable with the rear tires, they were sliding quite a bit. I think when the gap opened again, that’s when Kimi pitted.”

Vettel said he was surprised to come out ahead after his pit stop, which came five laps after his teammate’s, during which he put in some scorching times on his older ultrasofts while Kimi was on new supersofts.

“I knew that if I have any chance that might be it until I get the call because Valtteri was on fresh tires so it’s likely that he will go quicker, so I just tried to push as hard as I can and wait for the call to box. When it came and then when I came out ahead of Kimi even, I was surprised myself. But for sure I take it. It’s a great win. Those couple of laps were really crucial, I was pushing flat out. I had better laps than in quali today in the race. I was very happy with how the race went. The car was great. So to sum it up, it’s just been fantastic, a fantastic weekend for the team and a great reward.”

Asked is there had been any team orders that gave him priority he said: “Not really. We spoke about the race before. It was clear that, I think they had the same plan to be honest so the lead car normally gets priority so if I had a choice at that point, sitting behind Kimi, if I was going in the pits first, that’s maybe what you like to do, because you are sooner on the fresher tires so I think it’s probably one of the rare occasions where the over-cut turned out to be positive, so I’m really glad I made that work.

“From the team point of view, there was no plan of any team orders or anything and as I said, I can understand that obviously Kimi’s not happy, I would feel exactly the same, 100 percent the same.”

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