Sebastian Vettel was a bit confused with the F1 Japanese GP end which allowed Fernando Alonso to close in on him.
It was a strange F1 Japanese GP for Aston Martin’s Vettel and Alpine’s Alonso where the duo started the grand prix side-by-side and ended it in the same manner. The German had a storming start to the original grand prix and was on the left of the Spaniard.
But with little space and puddle of water, Vettel spun off to be dead last. The red flag provided a chance to redeem himself and Aston Martin charted a plan which eventually helped him to be sixth in the end but by just the 0.011s margin.
It was a picture perfect finish where Alonso hurried him on what ended up being the last lap, where neither of the drivers knew about the chequered flag. Additionally, Vettel had no radio and he had to depend on the pit board to know the gap.
He eventually was sixth with Alonso ending up seventh, but their moment wasn’t captured on the world feed which focused on Max Verstappen’s win and the fight between Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez. A fan, though, had it on his mobile from the stands.
“Very pleased, obviously it started really well, we had a phenomenal start but then had nowhere to go,” said Vettel to TV media. “I had a lot of aquaplaning on the left, lost the car, touched Fernando and was last. So, it looked like that was it. But then we had a great recovery as we spoke about what happened and together with the team we had a plan going into the sprint race at the end.
“And it worked as we had enough pace to survive, it was a bit of confusion because I had lost the radio and the pit board saying one lap, backed off little bit and Fernando was still pushing, I was a bit confused and so I kept racing and we just managed to keep sixth. I think they changed the duration of the race in the end, I don’t know,” summed up Vettel.
For Alonso, he lost out on places when he stayed on the full wets while others pitted. The team also decided for a late stop which left him less time to recover places as he ended up seventh from where he had pitted in his early chase of Vettel.
“It was difficult to read the conditions and also the visibility was the biggest topic, we stopped very late everytime we decided to pit,” said Alonso. “At the beginning, I was the only one with full wets and I lost couple of places and then at the end, we made an extra stop.
“But with only six laps to the end, so it was no time to make a difference, so we ended up in the same position. There was some fun out there, very chaotic for everyone, even on the last lap, we didn’t know if it was the last lap or not, so I think it was difficult for everybody.”
Here’s the video of the chequered flag moment: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1579374170630144005?s=20&t=aPeL1HzlUAhl8B0xX0U1Xg
Here’s Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso on tractor issue
