Vettel counted on two stops for his rivals

If Mark Webber signed his second victory in the Principality after starting from pole following the penalty of Michael Schumacher, his teammate Sebastian Vettel was in more difficulty since he only started from ninth place. The German quickly adopted an aggressive strategy by choosing from Q3 not to set a time in order to be able to start on soft tires unlike the rest of the peloton. The pilot Red Bull chose the super softs for the second part of the race after being able to gain positions by extending his stint, but the double world champion hoped that his rivals would come back to the pits a second time.

“It would have been a good thing to get on the podium today”, admits Sebastian Vettel who loses the lead in the Championship. “I think I had the speed to get there, but ultimately I had the same strategy as the leaders (with one stop), it was just reversed. It was quite difficult when I had the old tires but I was able to string together some good times by taking a good lead (in my first stint). After that I was in traffic and it's always difficult to overtake in Monaco, as I showed last year and as Mark showed this year. I was hoping that other leading drivers would have to make two stops. Unfortunately, Kimi had blocked the competitors behind me, which allowed the leaders to leave with a clear track. This complicated my race but considering that I started from ninth place and it is difficult to overtake in Monaco, gaining five positions makes my day good. »

Discover the analysis of the Monaco Grand Prix in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac and from Wednesday on newsstands.