His Ferrari failed him in the first qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, leaving him to start Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix from the back of the grid, however Sebastian Vettel was determined not to let a little thing like 19 cars head of him stop him in his tracks and began the fightback from the moment the lights went out.
Seeing his teammate Kimi Raikkonen pushed off the grid before the installation lap didn't fill him with hoe, but he put his head down and raced his heart out. He did a brilliant job of it as well, working his way up to fourth place and less than a second off third placed man Daniel Ricciardo and only 10 seconds behind his title rival.
However, after he attempted to pass the Australian, the Red Bull driver defended brilliantly and Seb was unable to get through. It was then that the call came over the Ferrari radio to back off. Vettel asked if he could please do it, however he needed to slow his pace to save the engine.
Therefore he was forced to settle for fourth place, still a brilliant result from a back of the grid start….
“I am still optimistic, because we know that we have a quick car. Of course it was a shame for Kimi who couldn't take the start, and for me having to begin my race from the back of the grid,” he said. “ We tried to fight for the podium, pushed very hard, but in the end the tires were starting to give up and we couldn't be really there. However, it is promising to see the car is good, even if both Kimi and I hit trouble this weekend.”
“I don't know yet if the issue is the same on both cars, we'll need to have a look. For sure it's not ideal having one car out yesterday and another one today. So, there's something we need to understand. It's been a difficult weekend, but nevertheless the speed is there. So far we've had a pretty good record for this year regarding reliability. I am not that worried to be honest, but we need to get on top of the problem.”
Then, just when he thought it was all over, the Williams of Lance Stroll moved across and into the rear of the Ferrari, shattering the left rear corner of the car in the process.
