Sebastian Vettel says he was ‘very happy’ with his recovery drive after recovering from a first lap accident with teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Vettel became sandwiched between Daniil Kvyat and Raikkonen at Turn 1, which led to Vettel hitting the rear of Raikkonen’s car and caused him front wing damage.
Despite the unscheduled pit-stop Vettel managed to use the power from the Ferrari engine to soar up to second place, finishing 37 seconds behind race winner Nico Rosberg.
The German blamed Kvyat for the incident after the race and made it clear he felt lucky that the car suffered no terminal damage.
“Well I was obviously disappointed that I made contact in lap one,” he said.
“Lucky that the car was still intact. I was reporting to the team, initially I thought I had to box straight away but it was actually OK.
“The steering wheel was a little bit off-centre, so had a bit of damage all through the race. It was actually more difficult in left-handers than right-handers.
“Fortunately there’s more right-handers here. If it was the other way around could have been a bit more difficult but yeah, I think the Safety Car helped.”
Vettel hailed the incredible recovery but was upset with the accident on lap one that compromised the teams race.
“So yeah, incredible recovery, which at that point, when you make contact in Turn One, you know things cross your mind, that it might just all be lost from here and the race just has just started – but very, very happy with the recovery,” he added.
“Good that we had both cars as well in the finish. Obviously terribly sorry for Kimi but there wasn’t anything I could have done differently.
“I was a bit in the sandwich of Kimi on the left and Daniil on the right. Bit unfortunately but afterwards was good fun.”
