That put Ferrari in a dilemma.
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Raikkonen was called in but Hamilton’s out-lap was quick enough that he was ahead by the time the Ferrari left the pitlane, and he stayed ahead to the finish.
Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland steers his auto during the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix on the Marina Bay City Circuit in Singapore, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016.
The Ferrari driver, who suffered a problem with his anti-roll bar, could only manage the slowest time during Q1 before being forced to return to the pit lane.
As the team frantically weighed up the options, Raikkonen yelled over the radio, “Are we boxing (pitting) this lap?” only to get the reply from his engineer: “I’ll let you know”.
The German eventually wound up fifth, just 27s back from racewinner Nico Rosberg and 17s away from team mate Kimi Raikkonen – deficits made all the more impressive given the lack of any late safety cars.
“Already in the first lap, going into turn one, something happened”, said Vettel.
Scuderia Ferrari’s German driver Sebastian Vettel’s auto is seen after he retired from the qualifying session in Singapore on September 17, 2016, ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix night race.
That was the same gap race victor Rosberg had over Daniel Ricciardo following the Red Bull driver’s own late extra stop, with the German managing to hold on to win by a mere 0.4s. “Obviously I would prefer it that way, and being higher up on the grid, but now it is something we are looking into to see whether it makes sense”. Having failed to beat Mercedes on the track where its performance edge was largely negated, Ferrari seems likely to endure another winless season to match that of 2014.
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Finishing less than half-a-minute off race victor Nico Rosberg, Vettel says it was a shame a fortuitous safety vehicle didn’t arrive to potentially take him all the way the podium. “It’s not a quality of mine either, we are here to win and we’re not satisfied until it happens, but we’re progressing step by step and one day it will pay off”.
